I'm Gonna Cry
by potterfan36041
Summary: One night, Tommy tries to let go of Kim and her memory, as Jason has a plan for the two of them, but will it work?
1. Default Chapter

**Summary:** Tommy thinks back on all of the hurt and pain Kim's and his relationship caused and tried to move on. Based on a song by Keith Urban, although the song is not included in the story. This is a one-shot and it was just something that popped up in my head that I had to get out on paper. I know I won't be able to focus on my other story until I do.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

Here it goes!

Tommy Oliver sat on his couch wondering how he ended up like this, drinking a bottle of wine and feeling sorry for himself when his life was really so nice, at least to the outside world it was. Ten years ago, he would have predicted that he would be happily married and have children with the woman he used to loved. Correction, the woman he still loves with everything he has, but also the woman that left him. Why? He wasn't sure, but he didn't believe half of what he heard and only what he felt, somehow all of this was very wrong.

It had been almost nine years since that infamous letter that ripped his heart out and beat him to a bloody pulp. He had never seen it coming, never had a chance to catch the warning it just blind-sided him. At first, he had hoped it was some sort of sick prank that Kim had done to him, just to see what he would do, but as time went on, it only got worse. His grades started dropping, he barely cared about karate anymore, and he had, had one too many close shaves with the monsters. All of the other rangers were concerned about him, namely Kat, but none of their words helped him. He didn't care about them the same way he did about Her.

After awhile, he tried to move on and began the first of several failed relationships. Kat was the first girl he dated since Kim broke his heart, but just because she was the pink ranger did not mean that she could replace Kim in every way. Then Divatox captured Kim and Jason. He had to save her, he still loved her, and he couldn't have lived with himself if she had died and he had just sat there and watched. That was the last time that he had seen her, they hadn't exactly been civil towards each other, and it didn't help that he was dating Kat at the time. More than once, he was tempted to go up to her and give her a jolting kiss, but was stopped by the fear that she didn't feel the same, despite what Jason said. That trip had been absolutely miserable for him and soon after he broke it off with Kat.

The next girl was named Janie, a sweet southern-belle he had met while on the racing circuit, again trying to find a way to forget her. With her electric blue eyes and deep brown hair, she would have been a prize for most guys he knew, but she was no Kim. He hated to admit it, but every girl that he dated, he measured up to Her, and he often wondered if she did the same. Janie lasted until a little while before he got out of the racing business. She broke it off this time, knowing that his heart belonged to some one else and that it always would. She knew about Kim as well, but she had thought she could get him to believe that she was the one for him. Her attempt had not worked well for her, but she found the truth, which let her let go.

The final girl that he had dated was Hayley and that had been a very short affair. When they first met in college, he needed the help and she was there to provide it for him. For awhile, he thought that he might have fallen in love with her, but then Jason brought up Kim to him, just as a spur of the moment thing. Although he wouldn't admit it, she was the only one that would ever capture his heart and keep it. She had had it since he had met her on his first day of school. If he were to get married to Hayley, it wouldn't work, because he didn't love her the way that she loved him. When they broke it off, they remained friends, which helped when Mesogogg appeared a few years later.

He pulled himself out of these thoughts and began looking around the living room. There were pictures of most of the ranger teams hanging all over the room, but one picture had never been hung up and that was the one of the original team. He couldn't bring himself to putting her face up on his wall, to see every day. When Jason and the other's came to visit, they often talked about Kim and some of the things she was doing, but they never talked about the man that she had left Tommy for. He often wondered if there was even another man, because he had never heard of a marriage and he was sure that they would have told him about that, even if they didn't tell him about anything else. They had all asked why they were not being displayed on the wall, but one look at him told them the truth, it was Her. She still haunted him after all of this time.

He started crying as he thought about what he should have done. He should have gone after her, he shouldn't have let her just walk out without an acceptable excuse. Damn, it had been ten years and he still thought about Her every day. Why? He didn't know, but all he did know was that he could not shake her from his memory, like all of the other girls he had dated. If he was honest with himself, there had never been other girls; they were merely acquaintances and most of the time they cared more for him, than he did for them.

He wanted to let all of this go, but he just couldn't find it in his heart to do so. He couldn't push her out of his memory, just to get some peace, because he highly doubted that she had forgotten him. She had been his first and his only and from what the others had said, it was the same for her. It made no sense why she would have chosen to leave him like this, with no explanation. At about this time, he reached his tolerance for alcohol and passed out, all the while going into a very fitful sleep, that only seemed to match his reality.

* * *

Over three thousand miles away, a child was asleep, while his mother paced around the living room, holding a letter in her hands. Jason had sent it to her, begging her to do what she should have done long ago, tell Tommy the truth. She had never let on that anything was wrong when she had visited him that last Christmas, because nothing was, until January.

That was when she found out about little Tommy, as she called him. He was the spitting image of his father, in every way imaginable and the only man that he knew from California was "Uncle" Jason, who had been there for her during the hard times. They had both hoped on that fateful trip to California, some nine years ago that she would be able to tell Tommy about the son he never knew, but she didn't get to. She left there with the same thing she had taken there, nothing.

Now, Jason was asking, no begging, her to come out there and tell Tommy everything. If she did this, she knew she would have to bring little Tommy with her and she didn't think that would sit too well with him. After all of these years, he could be happily married with a wife and children. The life that they both had always thought they would share together. At the age of eighteen, she couldn't see herself putting Tommy through raising a child, when he was still trying to keep the world safe. That was why she had excused him from her life, in the most brutal way possible and boy had it worked, all too well.

She threw the letter down and then flung herself onto the couch. What was she going to do? Jason had even sent tickets this time and she knew that he was not going to accept no as an answer. Tommy was like a brother to him and Kim was the little sister he never had. It was close to little Tommy's birthday, so maybe she would surprise the youngster with the visit. He had been asking about his father a lot lately and maybe it was finally time that he got some closure in this matter. She didn't know if Tommy would want to have anything to do with her, but she had to try.

Jason wished that he could have stopped her, but no one knew about little Tommy's presence in the world, until it was too late. A few weeks ago, the boy had called him, begging to know who his father really was and Jason knew he couldn't hide it any longer. Now, if he could only get Kim out to California, maybe all the lost time would disappear and the both of them would be happy again. They hadn't been truly happy years, but it might take a lot to get them back to what they used to be, but it would be well worth it.

AN: I know I said it was a one-shot and this is how I intend to leave it, unless you review it. So, if you want to hear more in this saga, you know what to do.


	2. Ch 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

_Now, on with the story!_

A week later, Kim found herself boarding a plane, bound for Angel Grove, California. It was her hometown and the one place that she had been wanting to come back to for a long time. She didn't know what Jason had planned, but she knew that whatever it was, was going to be a complete surprise for her and her son. She doubted that he would bring Tommy into the picture right now, but weirder things had happened with Jason and she knew to expect almost anything, including seeing the father of her child the second she got off the plane.

Jason loaded up in his old, reliable truck and headed towards the airport, with Tommy following behind him. Quite a few of the former rangers were coming in this weekend, but he had failed to mention to Tommy that Kim was one of them. He thought that it might be best to surprise him with that news, knowing that he would likely decline to be the other driver if he had known. They had all missed these days, but Tommy had missed them more than anyone else had, although he would not admit it. Kim's flight was to be the last to arrive and he had made sure that all of the others knew and were prepared to give them some space. After a few hours of waiting, all of the former rangers had arrived, except Kim.

"Who is this last person, Jason?" Tommy asked, casting a suspicious glance towards his best friend. He definitely had something planned that he didn't know about and he wasn't very happy to hear that. "The only one of the first ones that isn't here is…Jason you didn't, did you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jason said, as Kim's flight had landed just a few moments before. Now if he could only spot Kim before Tommy, otherwise he might be in deep trouble. The type of trouble that involved him being beat to a bloody pulp, if he was not able to continue to avoid Tommy's glare. He really didn't have to worry about finding them, as little Tommy ran towards his favorite 'uncle' and tackled him as he gave him a hug.

"Uncle Jason!" Little Tommy yelled, running to give him a hug. It had been quite a while since he had seen him and he was definitely more than a little bit excited. He looked up to Jason like he was his father, but he knew deep down that his father was someone else, someone he would probably never know.

"Thomas Kenneth Oliver Hart!" Kim yelled running after him, carrying a bag over one of her shoulder and rolling along another suitcase. He had her energy, but everything else about him was his father's and she knew that, everyone did that knew the boy and Tommy. She only wished that Tommy could see their little boy, but she had made the choice to not make him choose between being a ranger and their family. It would have been too much to ask him to do as a teenager. "You do not run away from me like that, do you understand?"

"But Mama, I'm almost ten years old, I can take care of myself," Little Tommy said, turning his gaze towards his mother and pouting in a fashion that made him look exactly like his father. None of the other rangers had met little Tommy, but they could definitely tell that it was Tommy's child, no doubts about it. Tommy, however, had not been able to take his eyes off Kim since she marched up behind the exuberant child. Now what had she called him? He couldn't really remember, but all he was waiting for was the husband to walk up behind her and introduce himself. Then he would have to excuse himself; he couldn't take that, not now or ever. He did not want to see the man that she had left him for and obviously had sex with. "And I'm with Uncle Jason and all of your friends."

"No, buts mister. I don't want you running off like that again, do you understand me?" Kim asked, as sternly as she could manage. She had only looked at Jason, so far, but soon listened to what her son had said and looked at the rest of the people gathered there, her eyes falling last on Tommy. What was he going to think of her when he found out the truth? That little Tommy was his and she had kept that from him, for all of these years. "I don't feel so good."

"Mama, what's wrong?" Little Tommy asked, as Jason put an arm around her to keep her from fainting. He had been prepared for this to happen, but she was managing to hold herself upright, for the time being. He saw Tommy was restraining himself from keeping her from fainting, mainly because he was sure that she no longer wanted him to touch her, although Jason knew that assumption was far from the truth. "By the way, who are all of you?"

"We'll explain it to you later," Trini said, giving him a warm smile. Jason had described him as the spitting image of Tommy and he was right. Surely, Tommy had noticed that, if he had taken his eyes off of Kim. Trini then looked over and Tommy, and could only shake her head; he was still staring at Kim. After all of these years he could not take his eyes off the woman, there was no doubt in her mind that the two were meant to be together, if they could just get them to see it. "We need to get your mom home."

"Okay," Little Tommy said and then he remembered the question he had for 'Uncle' Jason. "Uncle Jason, you said you knew who my dad was. Who is he?"

"Where's the bathroom?" Kim asked, feeling the urge to throw up everything she had eaten in the past twenty-four hours. She couldn't deal with the answer in the presence of Tommy right now. He was going to kill her when he found out that little Tommy was his and that she had hid him from him. The other rangers seemed to be sympathizing with Kim, as they all stared at Tommy, waiting for his reaction to the boys' question.

"That way," Jason said, pointing to the signs that read restroom. Oh boy, how was he going to explain this? Kim really needed to be the one to tell both of them this, not him, it wasn't his place. "Tommy, I'll talk to you about it later, alright?"

"About what later?" Tommy asked, looking at him confused, as little Tommy solemnly shook his head. Tommy then suddenly got the feeling that Jason hadn't been talking to him, as he felt the other rangers eyes staring at him. What had he missed while he was staring at Kim?

"I was talking to him, Tommy," Jason said, laying his hand on Tommy's shoulder. Tommy then took his first good look at the young boy and he started to feel sick to his stomach as well. It was like going back in time and looking at himself when he was ten. He couldn't be his, could he? He looked at Jason and could tell that Jason was bursting with the secret, as son and father were standing only a few feet away from each other, both seeming to be thinking the same thing. "But I do have something I need to talk to you about too."

"Why did you call him Tommy?" Little Tommy asked, looking up at Jason and then over at Tommy. He had remembered him from his mom's pictures, but she would never talk about him when he asked. She always seemed to get upset when he asked her about him, like there was more there than he was supposed to know about, but he couldn't be his father, could he?

"That's his name," Jason said, as little Tommy looked at him with wide eyes, as the light bulb seemed to click on in his mind. Now all he had to do was get his Mama to tell his father that he was his, he still seemed to love her, or so he hoped. "Don't ask that question right now, I don't think your mother can handle it."

"Alright," Little Tommy said, looking at Jason very suspiciously before turning around to see his mother walking back up to them. "It's gonna be alright, Mama."

"I know, Tommy," Kim said, looking down at her son and then over at his father. After all of these years, the love still shone in Tommy's eyes, even if it wasn't as bright as it had once been. He looked suspiciously between the two of them and then pointed at himself. She knew what he was asking but she could only look away, as she was not ready to tell him the truth. She wanted to explain it all to him, as this was not something she needed to give a half-ass shot, a wing, and a prayer.

"He's mine, isn't he?" Tommy whispered to Jason, as they helped tote the luggage out of the airport. Jason had been watching him very carefully, as Tommy examined the boy even more. He had to be his, he just couldn't be anyone else's, and he knew that. That would also explain some of the things in the letter that didn't seem like Kim. If she was trying to protect him from having to choose between the rangers and a their family, then Jason must not have mentioned that he was back in the line of duty. Of course, he wouldn't put it past Jason to send her tickets and demand that she came out there to tell him, as things had gotten more dangerous lately.

"I'm not the one that can tell you that Tommy. She has to," Jason said, as Tommy knew that was the long-winded way of him saying yes. Now if he could only get it out of her.

AN: I know that this is a short chapter, but hopefully the next one will be longer. I hope that you have enjoyed it so far and I don't know how many more chapters will be in this story, as it was just a little idea that overtook my mind in the midst of my other story!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

Now, on with the Story!

Jason decided it would be best for Kim to ride home with him, as she was not coping well with all of this, but little Tommy wanted to ride with the others, as he had started talking with Zack about some dancer and the two of them were not going to shut up any time soon. He watched Kim's gaze follow the child, as he piled into Tommy's jeep, with the other former rangers. She couldn't help but thinking back to all of the times that she had scrambled up into the seat next to him, like Trini was doing now, it was almost too much for her to take. Jason could tell that Trini, Zack, and Billy were as sure about little Tommy's paternity as Tommy was now, but they all had to wait on Kim to tell them the truth.

"I have a question," little Tommy said, as Zack looked at him and then nodded that he could go ahead and ask, although he wasn't too sure they all needed to hear it. From the boy's first question asked, he had seemed to figure out that his father was one of them, although he did not know who, yet. He had ruled out Jason and Zack, but that left Tommy and Billy, although Billy would more than gladly steer the boy towards Tommy if he asked if he was his father. He did not want to the boy to get the wrong idea about all of this. "Tommy, what's your last name?"

"Oliver, why do you want to know?" Tommy asked, as he had thought that Kim would have surely told the child who his father was, but he had not been listening to the conversation little Tommy had, had with Jason. He was too interested in seeing if a husband would walk up behind Kim. That would have ended it for him, he would drive the others home in peace and then he would go to Reefside. He couldn't subject himself to that kind of torture. "That doesn't matter. What's your full name? We have to think of a nickname for you, as they are really going to confuse me if we keep calling you Tommy."

"Thomas Kenneth Oliver Hart," little Tommy said, as Tommy did everything he could to keep from slamming on brakes and turning around to stare at the boy. He had been named after him. He had no doubts in his mind now, but he didn't know how to approach Kim in this very delicate situation, but if he waited long enough, his son might bring it up again and maybe she would answer the question this time.

"What do you think they are talking about?" Kim asked, as she saw Tommy jerk his head back towards their son and then look back to the road again, shock evident in his mannerisms. Whatever he had just said, shocked Tommy and she doubted that it was about Kim's relationship with another man, as their had been no one since little Tommy came into her life.

"I don't know, Kim. There is no telling with the two of them. You know that he knows, don't you?" Jason asked, as Kim stared at her feet, which where dangling above the floorboard of the old truck. She could tell that Tommy had figured it out, but that still didn't make it any easier, as he was waiting to hear it from her.

"Yeah, but I still have to talk to him," Kim said, as Jason nodded his head in agreement. She wanted to have a little while before she was confronted with this, if only it was long enough to feel like she was on speaking terms with Tommy. That, however, was not going to happen, as little Tommy wanted answers, now. "I just don't know how the two of them are going to take it. I think that little Tommy has always thought that his father didn't want to have anything to do with him, not that he didn't know about him. I don't know what I'll do if he gets mad at me. He's all I have left from the time me and Tommy shared together, Jason."

"No, Kim, you still have Tommy, if you'll take a step in good faith about all of this. He never got over you, no matter what anyone told you or what it looked like from the outside," Jason said, as Kim curled up in the remainder on the space and went to sleep. She had gotten very little sleep since Jason had sent her the plane tickets, but now that she was with them, she felt calm enough to sleep.

"How do you like TK?" Tommy asked, after a little bit of thought. He couldn't call him little Tommy, like the others did. It just didn't feel right, at all. If he had known about the little boy before now, he probably wouldn't have had this problem, as he would have been 'Dad' not Tommy.

"That's fine with me, you had the name first," TK said, as the others noticed the double meaning of that sentence, although they were not sure the young boy did. He had the name first alright, but he also was the person that he was named after and they didn't know if the boy had made that connection. "How do all of you know my Mama?"

"We went to high school with her," Trini said, as the boy gave all of them a critical looking over before he asked his next question, they looked old enough to remember when she was pregnant with him.

"Was she here when she was pregnant with me?" TK asked, as they pulled into Jason's driveway and Tommy switched off the jeep and quickly exited the vehicle. He had wanted to take the gentle approach with this, but he had to talk to her now, as it was going to drive him crazy to sit there and the child not know who he was to him and be asking questions that he should rightfully know the answer to. "What's with him?"

"He always acts like that when it comes to your Mom," Trini said, as Jason's truck pulled in and she watched him wake her from her sleep, while Tommy's impatience left him for a fleeting second, before it returned with more power than before. "Always has, always will."

"I have to know now, Jason," Tommy said, looking over Kim's head as he stared at his friend. If Kim was not going to explain it to him, he would get it out of Jason, somehow.

"What do you have to know?" Jason asked, as Kim slipped around Tommy and towards the front door of Jason's house, hoping to avoid a slew of questions from little Tommy.

"If he is my son, Jason," Tommy said, as Kim and little Tommy stopped dead in their tracks. Kim, from the shock at his bluntness and little Tommy, at hearing that he didn't even know about him. No one else was outside, on this clear, September night, but they felt as if the whole neighborhood was listening to them, as Tommy said the next sentence. "Don't bull shit with me, I have to know the truth."

"He is, Tommy," Kim mumbled, as they both stared at her, at the shock that she had kept it a secret from them. Tommy had thought that he had been left for a man, not their baby and TK just couldn't believe that he might have been wanted, if his mom would have told Tommy. He seemed like a nice enough guy and the way he looked at his mom, he had never seen another guy look at her like that before and she not smack him. "I wanted to tell you the last time I saw you, but you were so busy with the mission and I just didn't…I'm sorry."

"There was never…you thought…I would have left the rangers for our family, Kim," Tommy said, as the young man looked at the two of them. What was he talking about the rangers for? They were just people on television, right? His parents couldn't be the real thing, could they? This was just too much for a child's brain and he continued to stare as his father stepped closer to her and then walked a few steps away in frustration, before giving her a hug and then quickly letting her go.

"I know that now, but back then I was scared," Kim said, as she noticed little Tommy was getting the full idea now. His father had never known about him and all those years that he thought he should be mad at him, now it was his mother he was mad at.

"You never told him about me?" TK yelled, as the two of them looked at him. Kim already on the verge of tears and Tommy preparing himself to tell her everything that he was willing to do, if she would only let him. He wanted the two of them back in California, where they had belonged the whole time. "You were that ashamed of me?"

"Tommy, it's not like that," Kim said, as she tried to grab his wrist, but he managed to get out of her grasp and on the other side of his father, who was closer to Uncle Jason's house.

"I don't care Mama, I never want to see you again," TK said, as he stomped off to go into the house, but barely made it two feet away from his crying mother, before his father grabbed his attention.

"You never talk to your mother like that again," Tommy said, as the boy looked up at him, seeing the seriousness in his eyes. The others had managed to make themselves nearly invisible, as they tried to stay away from the confrontation in the front yard. They had all hoped that neither Tommy would lose their temper, but it was obvious that both of them had, they were way too much alike. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir," TK said, as he felt that he had only made his father furious by saying that. It didn't make any sense to him, unless his dad still loved his mom the way that everyone said he did, even after all the years of waiting for the truth to come out.

"Go inside and we'll talk to you after we get all of this straight, ourselves," Tommy said, as Kim watched the boy retreat indoors, and then she fell into Tommy's open arms. She had always imagined that he would have been the one saying that he never wanted to see her again, but it seemed that he wanted to work this out, even if they could only be friends. Although Jason assured her that was not how he would want things to be, but he had always wanted the two of them to be happy and this might make them happy. "He sure acts like you."

"No, Tommy he is all of you, except when he gets excited, then he takes after me," Kim said, as Tommy thought back to how he would have reacted at that age and found it would be very similar to TK's reaction, maybe she was right. "I bet you want to know everything."

"That would be a nice start," Tommy said, as they sat down on the front steps of Jason's house. The other rangers had made themselves scarce, except for Jason and Trini. These were two of their best friends that they were talking about, and they could only hope that this weekend would revive some things that should have never been put to sleep. "Hey, I'm not mad, a little bit aggravated, but I still want to see you."

"That's better than him," Kim said, as she smiled about their child. She knew he would forgive her, but only if the two of them came to live in California, with his father. He wanted a normal family, always had, and now he was close to having it and she didn't want to take that away from him. "Well, I found out in January of 1995 that I was pregnant with him and I went to one of my closest friends for advice. She told me that you would probably not want anything to do with they baby and I was dumb enough to listen to her. My gymnastics career went down the drain, but I kept him and I broke it off with you. It was a hard few months. I fought the urge to call you, tell you the truth, and beg you to bring me back to Angel Grove where I belonged. All because of what one girl that didn't even know you said. I called Jason, one night, desperately needing someone from home to talk to and he decided he would fly down for a visit, although that was the last thing I wanted. I was six months pregnant then and it didn't take a genius to figure out when I had conceived the baby and who the father was. Well, Jason decided to stay down there with me until I had the baby. He didn't want me to be alone, but he still wanted me to call you and get you to come down there, I didn't. I didn't have an easy labor and eventually they had to do a C-section, he was too big of a baby for me to deliver on my own. After all of that happened, Jason went back to California, I found out later to be the Gold Ranger, but when he came back, he convinced me to come out here and tell you. You know what happened to the two of us and I didn't mean what I said, although I had an overwhelming feeling of hatred while I was evil. As you can see, he got older, more curious, and smarter than I ever thought he would be."

"When can you move back out to California?" Tommy asked, as Kim looked up at him, curious if he had seen love in her eyes earlier that night or if he just wanted their family to be together.

"Tomorrow, the movers have already packed up her apartment," Jason said, as Kim looked over at Jason with wide eyes. He had to be kidding. He was known for doing crazy things, but this would definitely be the craziest. "I was prepared, in case Tommy wanted you to come back."

"Whoa, I'm just visiting. I have a job in Florida, Tommy has friends in Florida, I don't know if I can leave," Kim said, as Jason scowled at her, while Tommy rested his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. "Tommy, you don't have to make that offer, he can come out here and see you as much as he wants to."

"That's not what it is Kim, I know how you feel, anyone who looks in your eyes knows how you feel. I want to try to give this a second chance, but it's going to take me a little while to get used to the idea of all of this," Tommy said, as he heard his communicator go off and he grabbed the thing and slung it to the ground. They looked on, shocked, as he had never done anything like that before, but these were not normal circumstances. "Jase, tell Hayley, I have other things I have to do right now."

"Alright," Jason said, as Tommy stood up and went inside his house, searching for something he had brought there, years ago, to try to help him get over her. It only made it so that every time he came over to Jason's he went to look at Kim's suit and her old power coin, although it had no powers left in it. Zordon had given it to him, as he knew that it would be taken care of, if Tommy had it. It was time she saw some of those things again, although he was not going to drag the suit out in front of TK. The boy had already been shocked enough tonight.

"He's a ranger again?" Kim asked, as Trini sat down beside her on the steps. Jason silently nodded his head as he watched his sister cry at how much of a reality it still was for him. Their son was bound to find out the full truth sooner or later, but which would be better for him.

"And you'll be one again soon," Jason said, as he finished a transmission with Hayley. A pink dino gem had been found and its recipient was sitting next to Trini. Kim looked up at him, hoping that he was joking, but she saw a familiar glow encasing her, as Hayley teleported her to the new command center.


	4. A Rough Landing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

AN: Thanks to those that reviewed the last chapter. I know that it has been awhile since I have written, but I hope that you will enjoy this chapter and however many more there are to come.

Now, on with the story!

_A Rough Landing _

"What the hell," Kim muttered as she landed in a dark cave and she managed to collect a mouthful of dirt, which she quickly spat out in the most ungraceful manner that she could imagine. She quickly began looking around, trying to find anyway that she could out of there, but all she could see was a dim light, several feet further along the caved walls. She had been in situations like this before as a ranger, but she couldn't understand why she would have been brought here like this, as it had only happened one time before in her life.

She quickly walked towards the source of light, hoping that it was an exit out of this place and that she would be able to find her way back to Angel Grove, quickly. She knew Tommy and the others would be worried and that little Tommy was sure to start asking questions that they could not help but lie about. As she neared the opening, it suddenly became clear that this was not an exit out of this place. It was more like an entrance to some unknown cavity in the cave, although the cavity seemed to be eerily familiar to her. She couldn't quite figure out why until she go the full view of the space and was shocked to see a space that looked almost identical to the Command Center, except there was no Zordon and no Alpha from what she could see. This really did not look all that good for her.

While looking at the room, she tried to remain calm and think of reasons other than the most obvious in her mind that she was there. Tommy had been wearing a communicator, so it was fairly obvious he was a ranger again, which was something that she was going to have to have a serious discussion with him about later. The room looked like something one of the first rangers would construct, as they were comfortable with a certain system of things, however the room was not uninhabited. As her eyes fell upon a female with red hair, she burst out in rage, as she was sure that this was someone who Tommy should have told her about, from the very beginning.

"Holy shit. I can not believe that he tricked me into thinking he is still single after all of this time. I should have known better. Tommy has a wife for Christ's sake and he didn't even have the balls to tell me that. Well, I was the bitch that broke up with him ten years ago, I think that I should have expected this but I was so dumb and hopeful. Damn him!" Kim yelled, as she paced around the room, having not noticed the four startled teenagers that were staring so intently at her. They had no clue how she had just dropped into the command center, but it sure as hell scared them now that she was ranting, about Dr. O of all people.

"Hello, miss. I'm Hayley. I help Tommy," Hayley said terrified as she extended a hand, as she thought that Tommy should be the one to tackle the marriage thing, as he was certainly stronger than she was.

"Hayley, that's your name, is it? The son of a bitch. I can not believe that he invited me back out here to live with him and he is married to you, actually I can't imagine him marrying you, but that is beside the point. No offense, you're nice looking, but I never thought you would be Tommy's type. I'm going to kill him the next time I see him," Kim said, as Tommy teleported in behind her and heard everything that she had said. Hayley looked scared to death and possibly a bit hurt, but he knew that Kim was lashing out in anger, although that would soon have to be controlled.

"Well, I guess maybe you're not our new pink ranger then, are you?" Hayley asked, backing up against the work station as she saw Tommy behind the mad woman and knew that he would carefully try to take her away without too much of a problem.

She, personally, wanted to do harm to the woman, but that could wait for another time. They had to get this figured out tonight and they would probably have to try to change her memory or something, which would just be loads of fun for her to do. She had obviously picked the wrong person to come in as a ranger, but Tommy just seemed to be slightly shocked by the woman's reaction.

"Yes, she is Hayley. It's just been an exciting day already," Tommy said, firmly as Kim wheeled around on him and started stalking towards him, fists balled up, prepared to make good on her threat. He had seen that look in her eyes a few times before and it was never good for the person on the other side of that look. He, however, might be able to talk her out of what she was thinking of doingto him. "Kimberly."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Conner asked loudly, looking down at Kira and he suddenly had the eyes of the enraged woman on him, while Dr. O restrained her rather well from taking out her wrath on him. She seemed to be able to shift her anger from one person to the next with ease and he knew he did not want to have anything happen to him.

"She's the one that dumped him, Conner," Kira said, frankly and she honestly could not believe that Dr. O had not dumped her first, but her teacher was not like that, most of the time. There just had to be more to her than they thought, but what was it?

"Shit, time really was nice to her," Conner said and he immediately got punched in the chest by Kira as she was now close to becoming a mad woman herself. "Well, it was."

"Not a smart thing to say Conner," Ethan said, as he was hit another time, but before he could make a smart ass remark the woman yelled out at Dr. O again and it was much more violent than they had expected.

"Get your hands off of me, Tommy! Just because I liked it ten years ago does not mean… shit who am I fooling, it feels great, but you're married now! Or did you manage to forget that as you did almost everything else in your past, mister?" Kim yelled at him, as she allowed tears to stream down her face, while he stared at her in disbelief.

Yeah, he had heard the part about him being married, but the things that were coming from her mouth now were worse than he had ever imagined. She was angry for something that he had never done with someone else and was perilously close to revealing the facts about his sex life as a teenager, which was not a good example for the kids. They had thought that he was still a virgin, although he had barely made it out of his junior year with that being true and the only girl that knew that was now thoroughly pissed at him. If she was anything like the woman he had known ten years ago, then every single one of them was about to find out, no matter how much he disliked the idea.

"I didn't forget you, I could never do that. It was more like you wouldn't let me love you anymore and I don't think it is wise to bring up why now. And Kim I hate to break it to you, but…" Tommy said, as he was cut off by the feisty brown haired woman, as she backed him into a wall.

There were several other women that had attempted to do this to Tommy in their mindless rampage against him, but he had never honestly been scared of them. Kim's body had not seemed to change much since they had been in high school, except for things that made him uncomfortable to think about it in such close proximity, as his body would still betray him if he was not careful. If it had been any other woman, he would have simply, gently, pushed her out of the way, and made a dash for the door to his house, but she would not so much as let him get out of arm's length. She knew him too well to let him do that, as she had caught his glances towards the stairs.

"Well, well Tommy, looks like you weren't a virgin when we first had sex, although you are going to have a lot of explaining to do. That looks like four other women that you had sex with and got pregnant," Kim said, pointing towards the rangers and all of their eye's widened.

They knew that they had, had to hear this wrong, but they were not sure how it would be best to go about helping their fellow ranger. He was by no means weak, but he did look much closer to having a break down and just letting this woman beat him to a bloody pulp. They had never understood how he could have patience with some people, but this woman was pushing all of them over the edge, except him. He looked like he just wanted to kiss her to make her be quiet and then cry for a few hours to get her to understand.

"Damn it, Beautiful! I'm not married and there has never been anyone but you! I thought that you would have trusted me when I said that I wanted you back!" Tommy bellowed, as she backed away from him and was horrified at what she had just said in front of these kids.

She had screwed things up between the two of them several times before, but this definitely had to be the most awkward of them. Things were now registering in her mind that should have registered with her from the first instant that she stepped foot into the command center that he had obviously built. Tommy had never been a real whiz at things like this, so he would need some help, and that was probably who the woman was and the teenagers. Oh God, she had probably just revealed to his fellow rangers that he had at one time had sex with her and it seemed had gotten her pregnant, although she had not said it directly to them. They could not be very dumb and they were sure to have picked up on it by what she had made him say.

"Tommy, I'm sorry. I'll go," Kim muttered, as she looked for away to get the hell out of that place, but the only exit she noticed, besides the one she had entered was a set of stairs and the teens had moved themselves in front of it. Her only hope was to make a dash for the door, but there was no guarantee that Tommy would not catch up with her before she got to it, if he even wanted to anymore. Boy, had she screwed up this time.

"Kim," Tommy whispered, reaching out to grab her hand, but she dodged out of his way and headed straight for what must have been the entrance that she had landed at. He immediately went to set the door to where it would not open, no matter how hard she tried to pry it open. She would either have to come back and face the music quickly or she would be hurtling at him another slur of expletives very soon. "She'll be back, eventually."

"Damn it, Tommy! Let me out of here, I don't deserve your pity or your love for that matter!" Kim yelled as she banged her fists against the cold, steel plating that was on the back of the rock façade. Her hands quickly began to ache and she split one of her knuckles open, which caused her to sink to the floor and cry, knowing it was useless.

She desperately wanted to have Tommy's comfort, but that would mean going back in there with all of the people that she had just embarrassed him in front of. Hell, Jason hadn't even known that they had, had sex until she told him that she was pregnant. That was just something that Tommy never really talked about, although most of the rangers had been sure that he and Kat had probably had sex, just so he could get Kim off of his mind. That, however, had never happened and he had made it more than clear to them lately.

"Why would we want her back?" Hayley asked viciously, as she was about as mad as Kim was right now and Tommy knew he could not deal with the both of them being like this.

Kim, in some ways, had the right to be emotional about things, but her reaction to Hayley had been completely uncalled for. Hayley, however, had not helped things any by not telling her that she was not married to him. He was going to have to ask her about that one, but it could wait for the time being. He had things that are more pressing on his mind right now, like making up some explanation for TK.

"One, she's the only one that the pink dino gem will take to, obviously and two, we have a son," Tommy said quietly, as the rangers strained to hear what was said, but did not pick up on it. Hayley, however, heard it loud and clear, which caused her to wonder exactly how long Tommy had known about it, but she didn't have to ask him that question at all. "I just found out and I want her with me, but we have some things to resolve before we can really think about going back to what we were in high school. You can tell from the way she reacted to you. I'm sure that she's sorry about it."

"Let me get all of this straight, Tommy," Hayley said, setting her hand on top of his head and causing him to tilt his head down towards her. "You're telling me that what she yelled at you was true? And you think that you still know her well enough to tell me what she thinks."

"Yeah, I'm not a saint, Hayley and I do love her, crazy as that seems, so I know her better than anyone here," Tommy said, as he walked away from Hayley, but he now found himself faced with the rangers, who were thoroughly stunned, but they did step out of his way. They didn't want to talk to him right now and he seemed to think that that was a good idea, as he headed upstairs. "Whenever she comes around, send her upstairs."

"Tommy, you're leaving the five of us to deal with her?" Hayley asked, as he merely nodded his head and continued on his way out of the command center.

He was about to have a very long telephone conversation with Jason, seeing as he might not be able to return to Angel Grove for several more hours. They would have to figure out someway to tell TK that he had, had an emergency and that his mom had went with him. The boy probably would not believe it, but at least it would keep him from asking too many questions or so he hoped.

"Hayley, did we just hear what I thought we heard come out of his mouth?" Kira asked, tentatively as they heard a sob echo through the tunnel that led to the path in the woods, knowing what was going on. The woman was emotionally drained and probably scared, although they could not believe that she went off like that.

"Yep," Hayley said, as she could not think of a more appropriate word for the time being. "And I think that he is actually still in love with her. I thought that she was going to kill me for a few seconds there. Thank God Tommy does have some control on her."

"You did?" Conner asked, as he could remember very well what it was like when her eyes landed on him for what seemed like an hour, but was more like a second or two at the most. "Something about their story just doesn't add up. Why would you wait to tell your boyfriend that you were pregnant?"

"She could have been scared that he wouldn't want the baby," Hayley said, although she found that very hard to believe. Tommy had never seemed like that type to her, quite the opposite really.

"She could have thought he was interested in someone else," Kira said, but that did not seem very believable to any of them. When he became interested in something, it took over his life and they could imagine that it would be the same way for someone.

"Or she could have not wanted him to feel as if he had to choose between being a ranger or being a father," Kim said sadly, as she walked into the command center and noticed that Tommy was no longer there. If he had already gone back to Angel Grove, then she might as well try to explain herself to them. If not, she was going to go tell him what she thought would be best for the two of them. "Did he go back to Angel Grove?"

"No, he's upstairs," Hayley said, coolly as Kim looked over at her and had the feeling that it was going to take a lot more than one apology to get her to trust her.

"I'm sorry, Hayley, it's just I didn't think I would ever have him tell me that he wanted me to come stay with him. Not after what I did to him, I overreacted," Kim said and then turned towards the steps and quickly jogged up them. Hayley stood there, dumbfounded, and the rangers could not believe what she had just said.

Hayley couldn't help but feel about two inches tall. Yes, Kim had just been the one to accuse her of being married to Tommy, but there were times when she had wished that it would have been that way. He just never showed any interest, in any woman, except for the one that she had seen him become so mad at. For several years, she thought that he might have been gay, but it never made sense, there was just always that thing there that made it seem like he had been really hurt and now she could what it was.

"Jason, just tell him I had an emergency," Tommy said into the receiver, as he heard the door open from the basement and an 'ouch' be muttered, as it was obvious that Kim had hit her head on the trap door, as he had several times while he was there.

"Tommy, he's not dumb," Jason said, as Trini had been trying to convince him that they had just stayed outside and were talking for a little while, but he was not buying that one, either.

"Just tell him that, Jason," Tommy almost screamed and then hung up the phone, knowing that Jason would eventually figure out how to get to the boy or he would be calling back in a matter of minutes, cursing at Tommy.

"I'm sorry," Kim muttered, avoiding Tommy's eye contact as she saw him standing next to the phone. She didn't want him to see what she was thinking, but she knew that he would not let her continue to avoid his persistent gaze.

"Yeah, I know Beautiful, I understand," Tommy said, but she still did not look at him and he felt that she was trying to pull herself back inside of the safe shell she had been living in for the past ten years, with him not knowing about TK. He did not want her to take herself away from him again and was prepared to do anything to make her understand. "Come on, why don't we sit down and talk?"

"No, Tommy. I'm going back. I can't put you through this, not now. You have so much that you have to do, it's just not right," Kim said, as she turned to head back towards the command center.

She was going to ask Hayley to teleport her back to Angel Grove, but with how mad the woman was at her, she mind wind up on Aquitar or some other foreign planet. Right now, that didn't even seem so bad, as she was sure to have plenty of time to think about what had happened. That was until Tommy came and got her, then something would happen to Hayley for doing that and they would start all over again.

"Kimberly Ann Hart," Tommy said, carefully, as he reached out and grabbed her hand. She did not struggle to get free of his grasp, but she still did not face him. She could not stand to see the anger that was surely in his eyes. "Look at me. Please look at me."

"No, Tommy," Kim whispered, as she allowed him to pull her towards his chest, knowing that her heart was overriding what the logical side of her had just told her was best. He quickly engulfed her in a hug and she couldn't help but settle her head in its normal position, as it had been years ago. Damn it, she knew she was never going to be able to go through with what she said and so did he, at this point.

"Why aren't you trying to get away from me then?" Tommy asked, as he heard the command center door open and he knew that the rangers and Hayley were coming upstairs; probably to make sure he was still alive after having her come up there to see him.

Great, he was now going to have to have an audience while he tried to convince her that he was not furious at her. Sure, he was aggravated with her, but he would get over it. She had just told a bunch of his students that she was someone that he slept with, once upon a time and that he had gotten her pregnant. The thing was, if he knew her, she had probably went and told them the other half of the story just a few seconds before she appeared in front of him. That would make it a little more bearable when he did have to confront them.

"I should try, you wouldn't follow me," Kim muttered into his chest and then she gasped at what she had just said to him. She really needed to just quit talking, but it seemed that he always pulled out of her every feeling that was imaginable, just so he would get answers.

"I've changed. If you went back to Florida this time, I would come after you. He's my son, too and I want him to know who I am," Tommy whispered, although it was loud enough that his audience was able to hear it and they froze in their spots. They could not have possibly heard him correctly, although Hayley had taken a seat and was carefully trying to keep from saying anything. "Don't shut me out."

"It's best for you. You have to be a ranger, Tommy and he wouldn't understand why you were always having to leave," Kim said, not knowing about the audience that had gathered behind them. She just wanted to stand there in silence and let him hold her, until he choose to let go, which was something that he did not seem to want to do.

"So, does that mean that you're not going to be a ranger yourself?" Tommy asked, as she finally looked him in the eyes. She could vaguely remember Hayley saying something about her being the new pink ranger, but it had not hit her until jus then what had been said.

"I want to, but this for the best. I need to go and get back to Florida. I should have never come out here. Our son hates me now and so do you. I can't lose both of you, I've got to try to repair things with him. Let me go, Tommy, please," Kim said, as he looked down at her and saw that this was not what she wanted.

He strengthened his grasp on her and picked her up off the floor and carried her up the stairs, not caring what Hayley and his rangers thought about him. Some of the things that he was about to say to her did not go along with anything that they needed to hear. They had learned far too much about him tonight and he did not plan to let them know anymore, yet.

"No, Beautiful," Tommy whispered in her ear, as she realized that they were moving, but she still did not struggle against him. She had forgotten what it felt like for Tommy to have his arms around her and she never wanted to forget that again.

AN: I know that I am evil for this cliff hanger and I expect that I will have some people that are quite agitated with me. I will try to write another chapter soon and I have an idea for what will be in it, but I am desperately trying to get out the rest of one story, so I can begin another. Feel free to review, even if you are mad at me!


	5. The Aftermath

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

**XfallenXloneliness:** Thanks for the review and I hope that you like this chapter!

**XRachX:** Thanks for the review and I'm glad that you're not mad about how I ended the last chapter.

**CathyD:** Thanks for the review, I need more like that when things get out of line. I hope that this chapter will contain an adequate enough explanation for Kim's and Tommy's out of character behavior, as things are bound to get fuzzy sometimes.

Now, on with the Story!

_Little Things That Count _

"Where are my parents?" TK asked, as he was not buying a word that Trini or Jason had said to him. Something was up and it was not as simple as they wanted to spend some time together, if it was that, they probably would have slipped off to some room by themselves for a little while. "I'm not stupid, you know."

"We never said that, Tommy. It's just that they have some things that they have to settle on their own and I don't think that they want to do it in front of you," Trini said, trying to get to the boy, but knowing that she might not be able to. He was so stubborn and Kim could have sworn that this child only had one characteristic of hers. Ha, wait until Tommy saw this!

"Like, what? Who's going to have custody of me or something?" TK asked, as they looked at him, but none of them nodded that, that was true. They already had the feeling that had been decided by Tommy and if he had it his way, the two of them would be living with him before school started in two weeks. "I might as well move out here and be with someone who wants me."

"Thomas," Jason said warningly, as he was getting aggravated with having to explain every detail of this to a ten-year-old. Why couldn't he just accept it that they were just talking to each other some more? That really was what was going on, but there were some other things that were being involved with it besides talking about him, although he was sure that he had been brought up. "Your mother wants you and I suggest before they come inside that you change your attitude. I know that she did not raise you to act like a spoiled brat."

"Maybe we should have never come out here," TK muttered and stood up to walk to the room that Jason had put his things in without so much as bothering to look back at them.

He was so confused at how all of this stuff could be true. His father really did want him and he didn't seem to be some horrible guy at all. He actually seemed nice and he seemed to still be in love with his mother, which was something that he had never expected to see. Not after what he had heard that his mother had done to him.

Then there was the thing about them being rangers, which really wasn't all that important, although it was very exciting to know. He had the feeling that he would never be able to tell anyone that his parents were once Power Rangers, but it sure was cool to know it. It sure helped explain why his mom liked pink so much and why 'Uncle' Jason loved red, but that was all besides the point. He had to learn how to act around them now, as for the first time in his life, he had both of his parents so close together and yet, so far apart.

That night he fell asleep, not wondering what was going on between his parents. He knew that things would be shaky for a long time to come, but if things went the way that half the other adults in this house thought they would, he would finally have a man that he could know was his dad.

_Tommy's House _

"Tommy, you don't have to do this," Kim said, as he settled her down on his bed and looked down at her with a smile on his face. She should have known better than to tell him that as all he was going to do was go against it. He knew her too well. "I'm fine with little Tommy."

"No you're not. I know you and the upset woman I've seen over these last few hours is not the person I know. I know that she's down in there somewhere. You've just forced her to leave you for the time being," Tommy said, sitting down next to her and placing his hand over hers. No matter how mad and aggravated he was, he had to admit that it felt wonderful to be able to do that without having to worry that it was only a dream this time. "But that is not what I want to talk with you about right now. What got into you down there?"

"I don't know. I know that I didn't used to act like that, but ever since I broke up with you, I never wanted to have to face the reality that you were happy with someone else. I should have realized that when the place looked like a command center that they were ranger people, but I didn't think. All the bad situations that I thought had happened flooded into my brain and that was what came out. I never thought that you'd give me this chance and when I saw them all the emotions that had been building up inside of me exploded. I have to control myself a lot more in front of Tommy and I didn't realize everything that I had been holding it all in. I'm tired, which is no excuse, but my mind is taking a beating from everything that has happened today. I didn't think that Jason would pull something like that after all of these years. I'll make it up to you, somehow. I'm sorry," Kim said, looking over at Tommy who was letting it sink in slowly before he said anything to her.

"Hayley is not going to like to hear that one," Tommy muttered as Kim placed her hands over her face and let out a groan of frustration before looking back over at him. "But I think I understand where you're coming from, but I still can't really understand why. I said that I would take you and Tommy back and I meant it. You know I wouldn't have said something like that if I didn't. The thing is, there is another problem we have to address now, Kim. We need you as a ranger and if you really don't want to, I can't make you. You can go, if you want to, but if I still know you well enough, then you aren't going to be able to. Listen, why don't we go talk to them."

"No, it's not we Tommy. It's me. You have nothing to explain to them, besides the fact that we have child, which I'm sure they can figure that one out after everything I said," Kim said with a smile, but she did not move to leave the room. She didn't want to face them, but she had to. Tommy was right that she wouldn't be able to leave this post without second guessing herself. The only thing was, she had managed to let her stressed out condition get the best of her and alienate the people that she would be working with. "You're right about one thing though. I can't turn aside my duty, but I have a lot of apologizing to do in order to get them to trust me."

"Yeah, come on. They won't jump you if it's the two of us, but I'm pretty sure that they think we're both crazy by now," Tommy said, standing and then pulling her off of his bed and guiding her back towards the kitchen. He was fairly sure that they would be situated in the same spots that he had left them in and he was right, for the exception of Hayley, who looked to be furious and had moved to the far end of the table.

"Are you leaving now?" Hayley asked sharply, as she tried to hold in her own temper. She had had time to think about the things that Kim had said in depth and could not believe that Tommy had not cut her off any sooner. He was going to get an earful about that, if he ever figured out what was best for him.

"If you want me to, I will," Kim said, as Tommy looked down at her and noticed the unshed tears that were forming in her eyes. She wanted so badly to be there, but she had jeopardized her position by acting rashly about something that could have easily been avoided. It made no sense to her why she did it, other than this was always what she had feared would happen when she saw Tommy again. "I don't want to break the five of you apart."

"Hayley, just hear her out, please," Tommy said, cutting off the answer that he was sure would come from Hayley. No matter how mad she was, she had to be curious as to why Kim had said the things that she said to her.

"Will you answer my questions?" Hayley asked, as Kim nodded and Hayley couldn't help but be a little bit surprised. What was with this woman and how could Tommy love her this much? "I want the whole story and then I have some questions."

"About why I decided to not tell him?" Kim asked, as her hands shook from the fear she had at explaining this to a bunch of complete strangers.

"Yes, that," Hayley said, as the dino rangers sat down in chairs around the kitchen table and they noticed that Dr. O looked torn about what to do. Should he support his rangers after such a shock or the woman that he loved after such a mistake?

"Okay, fair enough. I came back for Christmas, ten years ago this Christmas if you want to know how long ago it was. I had gone to Florida to train on the Pan Global team and it was rough, I wanted to be with the rangers, simple as that. I didn't want to leave, but they convinced me to go after my dream. It was only after I got there that I realized my dream was to stay in Angel Grove with Tommy. I had thought about staying for good when I came back, but I didn't want to make anyone mad at me, for quitting. Well, I don't think it is appropriate to go into great detail about some activities that happened during that break and I've already said enough that you can figure it out, but when I got back to Florida, I found out I was pregnant. I was shocked, upset, and most of all scared. Not for me really, but for the baby and Tommy. The thing was I felt that I couldn't tell him because it would force him to choose between me and the rangers, who really needed him. I could not let that happen, the rangers needed him more than I did right then," Kim said with a sad smile and quickly wiped the corners of her eyes, as she noticed Tommy shaking his head, but the others seemed to just be listening. He could not disagree with her more on that, but there was nothing they could do about the past. "So I wrote the letter, to tell him I found someone else and I broke both of our hearts, for the betterment of the ranger team, in my eyes. No one knew and no one would have known, except one day, I got really desperate and I called Jason. I wanted to talk to Tommy, but I couldn't get in touch with him, the answering machine kept picking up and I didn't want to leave a message. What could I have said? That I was pregnant and I wanted him to come bring me home? It wouldn't work, so Jason was the best second I had and before I knew what I had done I had blurted everything out to him and had him hopping on the next plane out to Miami. I'm not proud I kept it a secret, but I thought it would be the best for the rangers and Tommy to not have to deal with it. They had more important things to worry about."

"You never let him have the chance to hurt you," Kira murmured, before receiving a sharp look from Conner and Hayley. She quickly looked away from Kim and tried to get Dr. O to make eye contact with her, just so she would have someone that felt slightly sympathetic about this with her.

"What did you mean about my not being his type?" Hayley asked narrowing her eyes and seeing how uncomfortable the two of them were getting, but if she was staying, they had to get some things straight right away.

"I was mad Hayley. I didn't mean the majority of the things that I said down there. I guess the best way to put it is that I am still afraid that he'll hurt me the way I hurt him, just to get even with me. I know it's not like him, but after what I did, I wouldn't blame him for harboring some bad feelings against me," Kim said trying to keep herself composed, although she was barely able to do that anymore. "I'm sorry. I know it doesn't take what I said away, but I really am sorry."

"Dr. O, you may want to get your phone," Ethan said quietly, as he was the only one that had seemed to notice it was ringing and he watched as Dr. O picked up the phone and answered rather hurriedly.

"Hello," Tommy said, praying that it was not Jason. He didn't really know if he could deal with a mad best friend, as he had kinda not been acting like himself that night, except when he was with Kim and just Kim.

"Hello, Thomas Oliver," Aisha said, as she heard him take in a quick breath, thinking it was a telemarketer. "It's just me, you dimwit. Look, Rocky and I are going to be coming up sometime next week and we were just wondering if you could make some time in your busy schedule to meet with some friends."

"I probably can, just call me back and tell me exactly what time. There's a lot of stuff going on right now," Tommy said, hating to try to throw his friend off the line so quickly, but he knew Aisha would forgive him when she saw Kim back in California.

"Alright, I've heard that voice before. Have fun with whoever you are going out with tonight," Aisha said with a laugh before hanging up. Tommy stared at the phone for a few seconds before settling it in its cradle and silently laughing at what Aisha had said, if she only knew.

"You didn't answer my question," Hayley said, as she had listened to Kim try to skirt her way around the problem, but she just needed to tell the truth, which was something that seemed to be coming from the odd circumstances.

"Alright, but I don't think it will help much. The only person that seems right is me in my mind and when I think about him dating anyone else, not only does it hurt, but it makes me angry. I went off because I thought that he had lied to me, but he hadn't. It's not excuse, but I've come from Florida to California, told him he's a father and then got teleported somewhere, my brain is kinda frazzled, and things that I wouldn't usually even think about saying, I'll say because my brain is not censoring anything. I didn't mean to make you seem like you're not a good person or something, I just...there's nothing else I can say, except I'm sorry," Kim said, looking over at Tommy who quietly sat down at the kitchen table and then pointed to a chair that Kim could sit in.

"I have a question," Conner said, slowly as Hayley nodded that he could ask. "Why now?"

"Because of Jason," Kim said, as they looked at her, wondering how the answer could be that simple. "You know, I better go. Tommy's not likely to be buying whatever Jason and Trini are trying to tell him."

"I'm not done," Hayley said, looking at her and seeing a scared teenage girl looking at her, not a twenty-six year old woman. "You were a ranger, why didn't you just assume that you were being brought in as a ranger again?"

"Because only two of us have done that and that's Jason and Tommy. I don't know if it makes sense to you, but the last thing I wanted was to be teleported somewhere, because something ranger related happened the last time I saw Tommy. I lost control of my emotions and there is no excuse for that, but I can't take it back and if you need a pink ranger, I'll stay. If you don't want me to, I'll go. Tommy and I can talk about things with TK later," Kim said, trying to take all of it in stride, although she just wanted Tommy to put a stop to it. He, however, was seeing how much the two of them would test the waters of friendship this time around.

"After everything you said I don't understand how you ever were a ranger, but we all trust Tommy with stuff like this more than ourselves. If he thinks you can do it, then you can, but I don't trust you," Hayley said, as Kim nodded her head and bit her lower lip, as she had a feeling that was as far as she was going to travel on the road to forgiveness tonight.

"Thank you, Hayley," Kim said, as she walked down the steps and into the command center. She had the feeling that the five of them deserved to talk on their own about what was happening and what it meant for all of them.

AN: Let me know if this one seems to fit their characters better! Until next time, happy reading!


	6. More Explanations

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

_Thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter. I got quite a few reviews, so I did not want to take up more space with responding to them than actually writing, so do not think that I do not appreciate them! I'm working on getting Hayley to act more like she does on the show, although I do have to admit that I have not watched many episodes._

Now, on with the story!

"Tommy, you're not going anywhere, yet," Hayley said, bitterly, as Tommy gave her a harsh look before he sat back down and looked around at the rangers, who were not helping him any. They were scared and confused and most of all worried about what was going to happen to them, now that their mentor had suddenly found out that he was a father. If he decided to ditch them, then they had no one to look to for the answers to some of the questions that were going on in their heads.

"Alright, Hayley, but now it is your turn to answer some questions. You dug into Kim pretty hard and to tell you the truth, I'm not surprised that she thought we were married. She knows that I wouldn't let anyone into a command center that I didn't trust with my life and my wife would be the most logical explanation, although I think she did know I was not married. She just has a lot of things that she thinks could go wrong in her mind," Tommy said, as the rangers looked at him.

He didn't sound like the person that they knew, in some ways, he seemed to be more relaxed about this situation, yet more guarded at the same time. A few months ago, he would not have said that in front of them, but now it seemed that he had no choice in the matter. They had found out about another part of his past and he had to explain all of it to them, whether or not he liked that idea.

"So, you're taking her side, are you?" Hayley asked, while she looked at the rangers to try to get them to leave, but it seemed that Tommy was the one that got through to them. They were going to stay, no matter what anyone else wanted. They needed to hear what he said, just as much as Hayley did.

"I'm not taking sides here, Hayley. I've already talked to her and told her how uncharacteristic her behavior was and now I'm doing the same thing to you. I don't want for the two of you to be enemies, but you have to let go of what she said," Tommy said, as it was Hayley's turn to suddenly stand and act as if she was going to leave the room.

"Hayley, she's sorry about it, you could tell because she answered your questions, even the ones that she didn't want to," Kira said, as she caught a glare from Hayley before she turned her attention back to Tommy. Who happened to be much easier to glare at without feeling any sort of sense that she needed to feel sorry for her actions, as Tommy had deceived all of them.

"Well, I'm sure you also comforted her because of her wrong Tommy, but what comfort do I get? I sit here the majority of the time and look at computer screens. I work my ass off for you trying to keep those damn Zords running and when she shows up and tells you that you are a father, you act as if our whole world has not been turned upside down by that news. Tommy, you have other responsibilities now and what is to say that your son and her will not take precedence over ranger work?" Hayley asked, as Tommy stared at her, wondering how she could even think that.

Kim knew what being a ranger meant to him and that was the main reason behind her not telling him ten years ago, although he wished she would have. It would have made things easier on the both of them, but why was Hayley deciding to pick a fight now?

"You get the comfort of knowing that I will always be a ranger. My world has been turned upside down enough times by Kim to know how in the hell to deal with it, Hayley. Everything she said down there was true. She broke my heart and I was still a ranger, what do you think that was like? I figured out how to work through things, even if it is hard, for the good of the team," Tommy said, looking at her and seeing if she was going to finally get down to why she was really mad; he was going to have to coax it out of her. "Hayley, why are you so mad?"

"Because not everything she said was true," Hayley muttered, as Tommy sat there in shock, not sure if he wanted to hear anymore come out of her mouth while the rangers were there. They had seemed to be fine with Kim by the time she left, just because she tried to tell them the truth about it all, no matter how hard it really was for her to do that.

"Oh boy, I should have seen this coming," Tommy said quietly, as Hayley just looked at him, knowing that he understood which part of the conversation she had wished would have been true. "Hayley…don't think that it is you, trust me, it's not, but there is something that no one seems to understand about me, except her. I can't explain it any better than that."

"Dr. O, why is it that you never really questioned everything that happened back then?" Ethan asked. If he had known her so well, why had he not been able to pick up on how odd her behavior had been towards him.

"I didn't want to have to face the reality of what she actually said being the truth. I knew it wasn't, everyone knew it wasn't, but there were bigger things going on in my life than just the two of us," Tommy said, as he remembered the Machine Empire well and he knew exactly why he couldn't have done that. He would have had to leave his ranger team to go on some sort of conquest of the heart, a conquest that could have left him with even more heartbreak. "Do I wish I did now? Yeah, but I can't go back in time, things happen."

"But you wouldn't change any of it, if you could?" Kira asked, as they looked at her and wondered where she was going with that question.

"No, I wouldn't. I thought that I would, for a long time, but she had her reasons and I have to respect that," Tommy said. "I still love her and no matter how odd that seems, I just have to deal with everything that is going on because of that."

"Tommy," Kim said as she peeped her head up from the whole in the floor and looked at all of them. The screaming had subsided a few minutes ago and she hoped it was safe to talk to him.

"Yeah," Tommy said as he looked at her and saw that she was looking antsy about something.

"I think I need to get back to Angel Grove. I've got a lot to explain to Tommy tomorrow and I want to have a chance to talk to Jason and the others about some things," Kim said, as she was not sure that he would be coming back tonight, but it really was the best for her. She had caused enough trouble tonight and she didn't want to cause anymore because she was tired.

"Alright, I'll teleport you there," Tommy said as he stood up and went to follow her downstairs.

"Tommy, go on and go. We can talk about all of this later," Hayley said, as she saw relief in Tommy's eyes and noticed that he nodded a thank you towards her.

"Thank you, I'll be back on Monday," Tommy said as the rangers looked at each other. They knew about rough times in the past, but they could only hope that there would not be many rough times in the future.

AN: I know that this is a very short chapter and I am sorry that it took so long to get out, but I couldn't exactly think of how I wanted this chapter to set up the next chapter, but I hope that you have enjoyed it anyways. Please be patient with me! I hope to get another chapter out soon!


	7. Late Night Confession

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money

Now on with the Story!

Jason's house had calmed down over the last few hours, as little Tommy had gone to sleep and the others were lounging around, waiting for Kim and Tommy to come back from Reefside. It didn't seem as if they should have been gone this long for something like that, but none of them questioned it, too much. They had a lot of things that they needed to work out and it was fine with them if they spent some time alone, away from the rest of them. That was when the rays of light began appearing in Jason's living room and all of them looked up expectantly.

"How did it go?" Trini asked, cautiously, as the two of them did not look to be the happiest of people right now.

"Alright, expect for the fact that I accused him of being married and that I basically told all of the rangers about his sex life," Kim said, as Jason, Zack, and Billy cringed, while Trini sat there in wide-eyed shock. Kim had done some crazy things in the past, but she had not expected her to do something like that when she first saw all of them. They probably should have warned her about his ranger team, come to think of it.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Billy asked, as Kim shook her head and he sighed. They had all known that it was going to be rough, but that was not what they had expected to happen.

"Guys, I don't need anymore disappointment. He got me good enough," Kim said, as Tommy looked at the floor for the first time during this conversation.

He had been disappointed in her, but he could overlook that and many other things that had happened lately. There was a very real chance that she might have to move in, because she had never been known to turn down a ranger position. Then he might be able to begin working on the relationship he should have never lost.

"Tommy's asleep, isn't he?" Tommy asked, as they nodded their heads. They were going to have to fill them in on everything they had been through to keep where they were a secret.

"Yes and he is a very smart boy, Kimberly," Billy said, as they suddenly saw the exhaustion in their friends.

Kim was used to his constant questioning of everything around him. He had been like that since birth and it had not gotten any better as he had gotten older. She answered most of his questions, but there had always been one that she refused to answer; now he had the answer to it. She knew that would cause more questions, but she couldn't help that she was teleported to Reefside only a few mere minutes after he found out.

"I should have warned you," Kim said, as they smiled, but they saw a frown on Tommy's face. It was his son and he didn't even know that he was a curious boy. He hadn't known until a few hours ago he was a father, but now that he knew, he had to do something about it. Whenever Kim and he had a few hours alone, she was going to explain everything about his son to him. He felt he deserved that, at the very least. "You alright?"

"Fine, just trying to get over the shock of finding out that I, of all people, am a father," Tommy said, as the shock had not truly hit him when he was standing in Jason's driveway. It had taken several hours to sink in and now that it had hit him, he was feeling rather overwhelmed by it all.

"Tommy, I'm sorry," Kim said, as he looked down at her and smiled.

"Kim, I know. You've said that enough times today. I want you to accept the fact that I am not mad at you," Tommy said, as Kim shook her head that she could accept that. "Now, what has our son done to you?"

"Firstly, he asked us why in the world you mentioned rangers. Tommy, I know that we have had to lie our way out of some sticky situations, but that child would not let us get out of it. We finally got him to stop asking by saying the two of you would explain," Trini said, as Kim shook her head and she sat down next to Tommy on the couch.

She knew that the romantic side of their relationship had been placed on hold for a decade and if she knew Tommy well enough, she was sure that he would not be able to last much longer. He wanted to be part of her life and she wanted him to be there too. She just didn't know why it had been so hard to do that when she was a teenager.

"Secondly, he asked where you went. Lucky for us, he didn't see the flashes of light, but he knew that neither one of you had left here by car. We said you took a walk around the block, lucky for us he bought that one," Billy said, as Kim nodded her head and Tommy just continued to listen to everything he was finding out about his son.

"Finally, he asked us if the two of you were going to split custody of him. That idea did not seem to sit well with him, but he wanted to know," Jason said, as he saw Tommy look over at Kim and then look away. He knew Tommy didn't want to discuss that with her tonight, but it seemed that they were going to have to in order to have all of the answers to their child's questions in the morning. "We'll leave you alone, now."

"Jase, you have any food?" Kim asked, before he left the living room and he merely turned around and pointed towards the kitchen. She should have known that he would have food in his house, she was just going to have to cook it for herself.

"Was that a good idea?" Trini asked, as she was worried that the two of them might still get in a fight over something.

"Trini, they need to talk and the only way that they will do that is if we give them room and let them talk," Jason said, as Billy nodded his head in agreement.

"So, what do you want to eat?" Kim asked, as Tommy wandered into the kitchen and saw her opening the freezer door.

"Pizza, if he has it," Tommy said, as Kim pulled out a frozen pizza and then went to find some sort of pan to put it in. She managed to do so, but only after making as much noise as humanly possible. Tommy was worried that they might wake TK up, but Kim knew he was a deep sleeper, like someone else she knew. "He's not going to wake up?"

"No, he slept through a hurricane, Tommy. I don't think a couple of pans being moved around will wake him up," Kim said, good-naturedly, as she could see a question forming in Tommy's eyes, but she didn't say anything about it. She was not sure that she needed to say anything to him right now. He had the right to know whatever he wanted to know, but she was not sure where he would want her to begin.

"Kim, is he really like me?" Tommy asked, as she had described TK to be like him, but he was not sure to believe it.

"Tommy, what did you do when you found out who your parents were?" Kim asked, as Tommy looked over at her, bewildered how that would answer his question.

"Well, I felt bad that they were gone, but I was happy to know where I came from, but Kim, what does that have to do with the question I asked you?" Tommy asked, as Kim searched the ceiling for an answer before looking over at him.

"Tommy, he always talked about finding you and just telling you everything about him. I think it surprised him that you are someone that I was really close to. I think he may have even gotten it into his head that it was a one-night stand between the two of us," Kim said, as Tommy nodded. He could believe him thinking that, as he had no clue about him, but that was it his chid had absolutely no clue who he was. "I think he always thought that he was going to hate you, because you wouldn't want him. He didn't know why, I should have told him why, but I didn't know how to tell him."

"Kim, I'm not worried about him hating me. I would expect something like that," Tommy said, as he knew that there was more he could have done, but he didn't do it because he was afraid to see something that would hurt him.

"He is really amazing, Tommy. You wouldn't believe some of the things he has done. He decided he wants to take karate, when he was four, I let him. You need to see him before we leave," Kim said, as she wanted to straighten things out in Florida.

"I don't want you to leave," Tommy said, flatly, as she nodded her head that she understood. "What if you just finish everything down there and come back here."

"Tommy, it's a lot to ask out of you and I know that there are no gymnastics academies in Reefside. It'd be useless for me to move here and not be able to work," Kim said, as Tommy looked at her. He had an idea about how to change that problem, but he was not sure that she would fall for it.

"Why not buy a place, Kim? I'm sure that there is a market for it in Reefside," Tommy said, as she looked over at him. She was sure that there was a market there too, but she would nearly go bankrupt trying to do all of this.

"I am too, Tommy, but I don't have the money to do that, not now. Tommy was accepted into a private school in Miami and it about killed me to get together this semester's tuition. I can't throw that money away and the only way I would get it back was if I withdrew him tomorrow," Kim said, as she knew that it was the last day to get a tuition refund and she wished she hadn't told Tommy that now.

"Leave tonight and go do that. We'll watch him. You don't understand that I cannot continue to live like this. I love you too much to let you go again," Tommy said, as Kim looked over at him. He was serious about this, but she knew that she needed to talk to TK and see what he wanted to do.

"I can deal without the money, Tommy. I just have to know that he wants to do. If he doesn't want to stay, then I'm going to go back. If he does, I'll stay and we can try again, but it has been a long time and we have both changed," Kim said, as TK stumbled into the kitchen.

He had had a nightmare and he had not been able to find his mom in the room that she was supposed to be in. He had stopped having them about a year ago, but for some reason they had started up again tonight and he needed his mom.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kim asked, as he walked over to her and sat down in her lap. He was nearly as big as his mother was, but he was never going to be too big to sit in her lap.

"Bad dream," TK said, as he realized that Tommy was sitting on the other side of the table.

"What about?" Kim asked, as the timer went off and Tommy went to get the pizza out of the oven.

"I don't really know. There were these weird things walking around and they attacked me," TK said, as Kim nodded her head again and he realized what the two of them must have been talking about. Maybe they would answer his questions right now.

"Can you go back to sleep?" Kim asked, as he looked up at her. He wanted to know some things now, although it was mid-night and he needed to be asleep right now.

"Mama, why didn't you tell me?" TK asked, as he watched Tommy's face tense and then he looked over his shoulder at his mother. She looked worse than he had seen her in a long time and he suddenly felt bad about asking that question. "It's alright, I'm not mad anymore, Mama."

"Because there is a lot about my life that you don't know about and I didn't know how to tell you. It was scary for me to have to deal with it and I didn't want you to have to live in fear," Kim said, as he gave her an odd look.

"What else has happened to you?" TK asked, as Kim looked over at Tommy, who she hoped would be able to find away around that question.

"Well, when I lived out here I did a lot of community service," Kim said, as Tommy tried not to laugh at her. He was not going to buy that and he hoped that she understood that well enough.

"Mama, what did you do?" TK asked, as he had only heard of criminals doing community service and he didn't think his mom was a criminal. "You weren't in trouble with the police, were you?"

"No, it was nothing like that, Tommy," Kim said, as she was passed a plate full of pizza and TK eagerly took a piece off of the plate.

"Then what was it? You don't do community service for the fun of it," TK said, as he looked over at the man that was his father and saw that he was rather amused with his interrogation of his mother.

"TK, when I said that I would have left the rangers for the two of you…your mom was one too," Tommy said, as he looked at him and then turned around and stared at his mom. Kim did not want TK to know about it, but Tommy had seen there was no way around it. He had been like that and he knew that only the truth would get him to stop asking questions.

"I thought those things were only on t.v.," TK said, as Tommy shook his head that that was not the truth. "Mama, is that the truth?"

"Yeah, it is," Kim said, as she gave him a hug and he then pondered it all a little bit longer. So, his parents were Power Rangers that was no big deal, but why? Why were the Power Rangers real?

"I have to keep it a secret, right?" TK asked, as they both nodded their heads and he seemed to agree to that. He didn't really want to tell anyone that his parents were rangers. They would think that he was weird. "What do I call you?"

"Me?" Tommy asked, as TK nodded his head and Tommy thought about it. He had no clue what to tell him and he was not sure that Kim would be happy if he said Dad so soon. "Call me whatever you want to."

"So I can call you dad?" TK asked, as he leapt out of Kim's lap and walked over to give him a better look. He had been fooled by some men in the past, who had wanted to get on his mom's good side, but he was not one of them.

"If you want to," Tommy said, as the boy gave him a hug and he looked over at Kim to see how normal this was, but then he remembered something she had said. The boy was excited.

"Mama, can we stay? Can you and Dad live together?" TK asked, as Tommy looked over at Kim, who nodded her head yes and then saw TK begin crying.

"What are those tears for?" Tommy asked, as Kim gave him a look that told him to not come down too hard on TK. He had just got something that he had wished for since he could remember.

"I have a family now," TK said, as Tommy gave him a firmer hug as he could remember thinking that himself only a few years ago. "Hold it. You didn't go for a walk, did you? You're still a ranger."

"Yeah, I am," Tommy said, as TK nodded his head that he could accept that. "Any other questions?"

"Not right now. I'm going to go back to sleep," TK said as Tommy nodded his head and walked him walk back to the room that Jason had put him in.

"I guess this means I need to find a building to buy, doesn't it?" Kim asked, as Tommy shook his head yes. "You know that he won't be really happy until we get married, don't you?"

"I figured it would be something like that, but like you said, we have to make sure that it is still there," Tommy said, as Kim nodded her head and he smiled over at her. "Come on, you need to get some sleep, too."

"Tommy," Kim objected as he looked over at her and she just followed him out of the kitchen. They both knew that there was a lot more that this child expected out of them now and they were going to do all they could. Who knows, they might even fall back in love along the way.

AN: Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this story so far. I am going to TRY to have the next chapter out in two weeks.


	8. First Battle Together

_Kim's POV_

For years and years, I lived a lie. I lived away from this place and my friends and family, in order to protect the one person that I truly love in this world. My lie ended yesterday, when he found out about his son and the life that we had been living ever since I left here. Jason, a dear friend of mine, implemented a little plan he must have been hatching for months; maybe even years, but it worked. Now, I have to jump into the full world that I left behind and begin doing what is necessary, for the both of them.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Crash.

"Mama! Where's my t-shirt?" TK asked, as Kim walked into Jason's guestroom and saw that he had completely destroyed the room, trying to find his favorite shirt.

"Tommy, it was on your bed. Why did you destroy this room?" Kim asked, as she walked over to the neatly made bed and held up his shirt, which caused him to sigh. He knew that it was in there somewhere, but he just couldn't remember where his mom said it was and he had checked every place that she would usually put his clothes, before he called for her. "Come on, let's clean this up before we go to Tommy's."

"Mama, why is he still a ranger? I thought that they were young," TK said, as Kim looked over at him.

"I don't really know, Tommy, but I'm one too now. It is not something that you can really turn down. Trust me, you won't be hurt because we're rangers. We'll make sure of that," Kim said, as TK nodded his head. He began walking around the room, picking up the clothes he had just chunked out of his suitcase and placed them back in there.

He was shell-shocked, to say the least, when he found out that they were moving out to California this morning. He had just been too tired to realize much of anything a couple of hours ago and it had finally sunk in now. He had not thought that his parents would be eager to do something like that, but he was wrong. Their relationship actually seemed fairly solid, considering the sudden news his father had gotten. He didn't know how he would have taken the news if he was an adult.

"Are you going to get married?" TK asked and Kim patted the spot next to her on the bed. She had thought he would eventually ask her something like that, as he was much more perceptive than he needed to be some times.

"We don't know yet, Tommy. It all depends on how well we still get along," Kim said, as TK looked over at her. He could see the lie that was forming on his mother's tongue and he didn't like it.

"You want to marry Dad, don't you?" TK asked, as Kim looked at him with wide eyes. Why in the world did he have to be able to pick up on her emotions so well? The only other person that read her this well was his father; not that she wanted to mention that at the moment.

"I want to, Tommy, but we have to see if it really works. I've been gone for ten years. A lot of things can change in ten years, Tommy," Kim said, as he nodded his head. He knew that was an understatement. Only one thing had changed and he knew that he was not going to get in the way of his parents' happiness and the family that he always wanted.

"He doesn't seem to think you have changed, Mama," TK said with a smile, as Tommy appeared, framed by the doorway, and looked at the two of them. He had heard enough on his way to the room that he knew what they were talking about, but he wanted to see if Kim would answer TK.

"I'm sure that he does think I have changed. It happens when you have been across the country for such a long time," Kim said, sounding as if she was having to convince herself of it as well.

"The two of you ready?" Tommy asked, in order to keep TK from interrogating Kim anymore right now. He was sure that he would get around to it again later.

"Yeah, I just need to go get my bag," Kim said as Tommy nodded and watched her leave the room, as TK smiled at the two of them.

"So, you do karate?" Tommy asked as TK nodded his head and Tommy smiled. "I do too."

"You do?" TK asked as Tommy again nodded his head. "What belt are you now?"

"Sixth degree black belt," Tommy said as TK's mouth dropped open and Tommy walked over to grab his bag. "I only got that a couple of years ago."

"So you and Uncle Jason both do karate?" TK asked as Tommy nodded his head and the two of them walked out of the room. "I guess that I'm not going to do it anymore."

"Why not?" Tommy asked as TK looked up at him. Wasn't it obvious? There was no dojo in Reefside for him to go to and he was pretty sure that meant the end of his karate career.

"Uncle Jason said there's not a dojo in Reefside," TK said as Tommy nodded his head that that was true, but he was sure that wouldn't last long. He had been saving to buy one and right now seemed like a very good time to do so.

"I don't think that's going to last too long," Tommy said as TK looked up at him, what was he suggesting?

"I'm ready," Kim said as she walked downstairs with her bag slung over her shoulder and her keys in the other. "Jason, are you sure that you don't need me to come back with you?"

"I'm sure, otherwise you might decide to stay," Jason said as Kim gave him a hug and then handed him her keys. He had volunteered to go back to Miami and pack up everything for her and to also give her boss her resignation. She didn't mind, as there was so much that she had to do here.

"And he has me," Trini said with a smile as Kim nodded her head. "We'll be coming to Reefside as soon as we get back."

"Okay," Kim said as she gave Trini a hug and then reached over and gave Jason another hug for good measure. "Come on, let's go, Tommy."

"All right," TK said as Tommy looked at the two of them. He desperately needed to talk to Kim some more, but he wondered when he was going to have the time.

"Reefside is about an hour away," Tommy said as Kim then stopped and pointed towards the bathroom, which TK obediently went to. "He usually do that?"

"He knows that I'm not in the mood for any of it today," Kim said as Tommy nodded. The two of them had been alone so long that they could just communicate with motions, which scared Tommy. He didn't want to break in on their relationship.

"Kim…you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him and just shook her head. She knew that she had to be a ranger now, he might as well get used to that idea as well.

"Tommy, if the circumstances were different, it would be one thing, but I'm a ranger again, I kinda need to be in California," Kim said as TK walked back out of the bathroom and headed for the door as he just shook his head at the two of them. He barely knew his father and he could tell that their estrangement was not going to last long, he just wondered why his mother didn't notice it.

"As long as you're sure," Tommy said as he walked her out of the house and she climbed into the front seat of his jeep.

"How have you kept this running?" Kim asked as she looked around the inside and Tommy just shook his head.

"I had to replace the engine a few years back, but the body was still in good condition, so I just painted it, the white was hard to keep clean," Tommy said as he backed out of Jason's driveway and then directed his jeep towards Reefside.

"And black is easy to keep clean for some reason?" Kim asked as Tommy just shrugged his shoulders. At the time of his life when he changed the vehicle, he had been trying to erase as many memories as humanly possible.

"So, Dad, why didn't you come after Mom?" TK asked, curiously, as Kim looked back at him with wide eyes and Tommy just shook his head. He had thought that TK was perceptive last night; he was quickly learning that he was much more perceptive when he was fully awake.

"At that time in my life, it was best to just accept it and move on. I had a job to do and I couldn't risk leaving my team. I always thought that if we were supposed to find each other again, she'd come back, I never thought it would be like this though," Tommy said as TK nodded and Kim just stared at the road. She had never wanted Tommy to come after her; she had wanted to be left alone, now she saw what a mistake that was.

"Okay," TK said as he looked from his father to his mother. "You okay, Mama?"

"I'll be fine," Kim said as she smiled back at TK and then quickly looked away as TK and Tommy exchanged a glance. The two of them were already teaming up on her and she was not sure that she could really take it right now. "Guys, just let me be, please."

"You know I can't," Tommy said, honestly, as he headed on the ramp for the interstate. "There is enough going on between the two of us that is likely to cause problems, Kim."

"And Mama, you're not a good actress," TK said as Kim looked over at him and just shook his head. "Where am I going to go to school?"

"Probably Reefside elementary, it's a good school," Tommy said as he looked over at Kim and she just nodded. He could imagine why she had put TK in private school, but in Reefside, it was not a real problem.

"Dr. O? Where are you?" Conner's voice sounded out of his communicator as he looked down at it and let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm on my way back to Reefside. What's going on?" Tommy asked as he began looking for a place that he could pull off the road, in case they wanted to teleport him away.

"There's an attack, Hayley said that she's going to teleport you and your car, somehow," Conner said as Tommy and Kim looked at each other with wide eyes. How in the world was Hayley going to manage to do that?

"I don't know if that's possible," Tommy managed to say as Kim looked back at TK and then over at Tommy, if this was how it was going to be all the time, she didn't know if she could take it.

"She said she can do it," Conner said as Tommy looked around his car and saw it shimmering as he slammed on the brakes. He knew that he would hate to land somewhere and be going sixty-miles per hour and just happen to run into something because it was not there before.

"Tommy, what the hell," Kim said as TK gave his mother an extremely confused look. She did not curse and she was staunch about him not cursing either.

"I'm not the one to ask," Tommy said as they landed, rather roughly, in his driveway and he quickly jumped out the car. "Get TK into the Command Center, then join us."

"All right," Kim said as TK hopped out of the jeep and watched as his father sprinted off towards the flashes of light. "Come on, we've got to hurry."

"How do we get in?" TK asked as he pulled on the locked door and then looked up at his mother.

"Grab my wrist, I guess we are going to have to teleport in," Kim said as she pressed the buttons on her communicator, that sent them sailing to the Command Center.

"What are you doing here?" Hayley asked, as she was shocked to see the pink rays descending around her. She was sure that Kim would just run off to the battle as well.

"I had to make sure he was safe," Kim said as TK let go of her wrist, as his mouth fell open in shock. He had never seen a place like this before in his life. "Watch him for us, please."

"All right," Hayley said as she looked at the awestruck boy and just shook her head. She was sure he was Tommy's child now and she was also pretty sure that this state of shock would not last long.

"Thanks," Kim said, hastily, as she teleported out and then set out for the battle site.

"Shit," Tommy murmured as he looked around the battle scene and saw his rangers being flung in every possible direction. "I hope Kim gets here soon."

"Glad to see you Dr. Oliver," Zeltrax said as Tommy looked over at him, tiredly, wondering why in the world he wanted to pick on him again.

"Can't say that I'm glad to see you," Tommy said as he wheeled around and settled into a battle stance. He honestly didn't feel like morphing yet, although the younger rangers surely would have suggested it.

"You've got something we want," Zeltrax said as Tommy dodged an attack as the other rangers struggled to their feet, in order to be able to take on the tryadrones.

"What's that?" Tommy asked as he sent Zeltrax flying into the nearest tree and just glared over at him. He was really pissing him off today and he hoped that Zeltrax would figure out it was not in his best interest to stay.

"The pink dino gem," Zeltrax muttered as he stood up to face the black ranger yet again.

"Too bad, it's bonded to someone already," Tommy said as Kim vaulted into the scene and quickly destroyed two of the tryadrones. The other four rangers could only stare at her in shock, while Tommy looked back over at Zeltrax, who had a confused look of his own.

"It's been way too long," Kim said as the other rangers snapped out of it and started fighting the tryadrones again. They might not have completely trusted the woman, but after what she had just done, they were all sure that she was definitely an asset to the team.

"You can say that again," Tommy said as he ducked as Zeltrax swung at his head. "Catch!"

"What's this?" Kim asked as she looked at the pipe Tommy had thrown to her. She, however, did not have time to wait for the answer, as she swung it at the nearest tryadrone.

"Exactly what you're using it for," Tommy said as Kim continued to use the pipe to her advantage as Zeltrax and Tommy continued fighting.

"Uh," Kim groaned as she caught a blow to the abdomen and fell to the ground with a thud. "I didn't miss this at all."

"Come on, get up," Conner said as he tugged the pink ranger to a standing position as she glared over at him. She was perfectly capable of getting up on her own, she just needed some extra time to try to adjust to the pain.

"I'm fine," Kim said as she sent another tryadrone sailing into a tree, before clutching her stomach. "Ah."

"Why don't you morph?" Kira asked as Kim looked over at Tommy. The way that she was feeling was much more serious than a mere battle bruise.

"Don't look at me like that," Tommy said as Kim sank to the ground and Tommy immediately went to check on her, Zeltrax being pushed to the back of his mind. "Kim…come on."

"Dr. Oliver, what should we do?" Ethan asked as the tryadrones were still around them and they couldn't just leave this place.

"Fight!" Tommy yelled as he gently shook Kim. "Come on…it's not that bad…wake up."

"It hurts," Kim whispered as her eyes barely opened to look up at Tommy.

"Where?" Tommy asked, as he could see no obvious injuries, other than the scratch on her shoulder.

"My stomach," Kim murmured as her body went slack again, as Tommy pulled up her shirt to look at her abdomen. Nothing looked wrong, but obviously, something was.

"This makes no sense," Trent said as the tryadrones disappeared and Tommy looked up at the four teenagers.

"Yeah, I agree. We need to wake her up," Tommy said as he gently shook her shoulder again, but she would not come to. "Kim…come on…come on, Beautiful…wake up."

"Beautiful?" Conner asked as Kira smacked him on the back of the head as Dr. O continued to try to arouse Kim.

"Why don't you just teleport her back?" Ethan asked as he squatted down next to Tommy.

"Tommy doesn't need to see her like this," Tommy said as the four rangers exchanged a confused look.

"Tommy?" Kira asked, carefully, as Tommy stopped shaking Kim to look up at him.

"Our son," Tommy said as he let out a long breath. "She named him after me, don't know why. Come on, Kim."

"How 'bout we teleport back and we'll take Tommy upstairs," Kira said as Tommy shook his head no. He was sure that TK was watching the computer screens and could see everything that was going on right now.

"I don't think that will work, I might as well teleport her back," Tommy said as he gently picked her up and let out a long sigh. This reminded him far too much of one of the last times Kim had been a ranger.

"What happened?" Hayley asked as Tommy placed Kim on a table and he just shook his head. "You're not sure?"

"No, Zeltrax had me pretty busy or did you fail to notice that?" Tommy nearly roared as Hayley took a step back from him as TK walked over and placed his hand over Kim's.

"Come on, Mama," TK whispered as he looked up at her face.

"She said something about her stomach," Kira said, as Hayley walked over to position the body scanner. Hopefully that would give them some answers.

"Daddy," TK whispered as Tommy looked down at him. He was sure that the look on his face did not make TK feel any better, but it was the best he could do.

"Yeah," Tommy said as TK grabbed his hand and looked up at the ceiling.

"What's happening to Mama?" TK asked as Kim let out a loud groan, which caused Tommy to exchange a glance with Hayley.

"I don't know. Why don't you go with Kira, Conner, Ethan, and Trent to this place in town called Hayley's Cyberspace? You can come home as soon as Mama's all right," Tommy said as TK barely nodded before walking over to Kira, who quickly led him out of the room. "Hayley…"

"It doesn't look good Tommy," Hayley said as Tommy let out a long sigh. How could something so little cause such an extensive injury?

AN: I know it's a cliffhanger, but I will try to have a new chapter out in a shorter amount of time than this chapter. I hope you enjoy it and tell me what you think about it. Toodles!


	9. Starting Anew

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Power Rangers or Keith Urban's song, so do not sue, I have no money.

Hayley hurriedly did scans as Kimberly continued to moan in sporadic intervals. Everything that had turned up was normal so far; there was nothing that would make her believe that Kimberly had a severe injury, yet she was still unconscious. That worried her more than anything else did, because they could only let it go for so long before they would have to take her to the hospital. Then they would have to come up with some sort of story to explain why she was unconscious with no noticeable injuries.

"I can't find a thing wrong with her, Tommy," Hayley said as Tommy looked at a printout and then gazed over at Hayley. "What's that look for?"

"I think I know what it is, I just don't know how we're going to get her to wake up," Tommy said as he walked over to Kim's side and looked down at her. "The gem is strong, but for some reason it has made a weak connection with her. See, this pattern, on my dino gem readout it is strong, on hers it is nonexistent."

"What are we going to do?" Hayley asked as Tommy could only shake his head. He didn't want to risk infusing her with powers, not after what it had done to him. He wanted to try something that was much safer for her, but he couldn't think of anything else.

"The gem itself will protect its owner," Tommy murmured as Hayley gave him a skeptical look.

"But it's not protecting her, it's hurting her right now," Hayley said as Tommy suddenly realized what they might be able to do.

"Infuse her with mine," Tommy said as Hayley gave him a crazy glance, "Hayley, I want to protect her. My protection should fuse with her gem and it should settle it down enough that she'll be able to function."

"Tommy, the last time we did something like this, you wound up in the hospital," Hayley said as Tommy looked over at her.

"Only a tiny bit of my energy needs to be transferred for it to work," Tommy said as Kim let out a loud moan and Hayley then nodded. They had to do something, as she was sure that TK was thoroughly worried about the situation by now. He had not grown up around both of his parent's and she doubted that he wanted to lose the one that he had been around.

"Only a small bit, Tommy," Hayley said as Tommy nodded and then gritted his teeth. He knew that it was going to hurt him, but he did not care what it did to him as long as he could help Kim.

-------------

"Don't look so glum," Kira said as TK sipped on a milkshake and just looked around the cyberspace. It was a really cool place, but he would much rather be with his mom. He knew that she was in trouble, no matter what his father said. The look in his eyes had not been one that said that things were going to be warm and cheery, it actually read quite the opposite to him.

"You'd be glum too if you had this happening," TK said as he then continued to sip on his drink in silence. He didn't want to talk to them about anything that was happening. He just wanted his mom to be well.

"It's not the first time, they'll be okay," Conner said as TK just shook his head. His mom was a lot older than they were; it had to do different things to her.

"So are you moving here?" Kira asked, as she thought it was best to steer his thoughts away from what might be happening at Dr. O's home.

"I guess, Uncle Jason went to get all of our stuff," TK mumbled as Kira gave Conner a curious look. Could this be the same Jason that was the first red ranger?

"What's his last name?" Kira asked as TK looked over at her. She was not this stupid, so why was she asking all of these stupid questions?

"Scott, but you knew that. I'm sure that my dad has a picture of him and Trini somewhere, probably on the refrigerator," TK said as Kira looked up at the others, hoping that they would at least try to get him to cheer up.

"You like computer games?" Ethan asked as he pulled out his laptop and TK gave it a half-interested look before nodding his head yes. "Well, lucky you. I happen to have some of the newest games on here."

"I don't want to play, I just want to go home," TK said as he leaned down to rest his head on his crossed arms.

"Hayley said that she'd get in touch with us when we could take you back. I'm sure that it'll be soon," Kira said as TK just shook his head and stared off into space. They were nice people, but they were not the people that he needed. He needed for someone to be able to explain what had happened to his mom. "We're going to be right over there if you need us."

"All right," TK said as the four rangers walked over and spread out over a couple of couches.

"Poor kid," Trent said as he and Ethan sat down on one couch and Conner and Kira sat on the other.

"Yeah," Kira said as she just shook her head. "It's had to be a couple of rough days on him. He finally meets his dad and he finds out that he's no where near what he pictured."

"Would anyone picture their father doing what he does?" Ethan asked, as Kira shook her head no. She was sure that this was the furthest from TK's mind when he met his father, but now it was right up there on the list of things that Dr. O needed to really explain to him.

"I guess that I would just like to think that he would have had some sort of warning about it. Let's face it, Dr. O didn't even know that they were coming out here," Conner said as Trent just shook his head.

"Dr. O didn't even know about him, so even if they had told him that Kim was coming out here with a friend, he wouldn't have assumed this," Trent said as they nodded in agreement. They had heard about the infamous letter, via Hayley, who had explained as much as she knew about it. She had never actually seen the letter, but she believed that Tommy kept it close to him, she just didn't know how close.

"Yeah, so it was surprises all around. I can't help but wonder how long it took them to get this together," Kira said as she was sure that it was no coincidence that Dr. O had been asked to go down to Jason's the weekend that Kim was coming to California.

"They probably have been planning it for years and they somehow managed to pull it off now," Ethan said, as it sounded just like something they would do if any in their group ever had a falling out.

"Conner," Hayley's voice rang as he quickly covered his communicator and looked around before he answered it.

"Yes," Conner said. He was not sure what type of news they would be getting, but he could only hope that it was good news. He didn't think that any of them could take any more bad news right now.

"You can bring TK home; they're both okay, just a little bit tired," Hayley said as Conner looked up at the others. Why would they have to worry about Dr. O being okay? Nothing was wrong with him when they left.

"We'll have him there in a little bit Hayley," Conner said as he ended the transmission and they quickly paid the tab and walked TK out of the cyberspace.

------------

"Tommy," Kim whispered as she looked over at him. He hadn't moved since the infusion had stopped and she couldn't help but wonder why he was being so still. "Tommy, are you all right?"

"Yeah, just a little bit weak," Tommy whispered as he looked up at her and noticed how pale her face still was. He had thought that she would look better by now, but he was wrong about that. He had forgotten how long it took for Kim to truly bounce back from these sorts of injuries, but he was pretty sure that she would be fine in the morning. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good either, but I've been much worse," Kim said as she rubbed her face, trying to bring some life back into her appearance. "Where's Tommy?"

"The rangers took him into town while we worked on you," Tommy said as he forced himself to stand up, only for him to stumble over to his rolling chair and sit down in it instead.

"What happened to me?" Kim asked as she finally forced herself to sit up and let out a low moan as Tommy wrapped his arms around her waist and felt her settle her chin on top of his head.

"Your powers didn't bond with you well and it caused you to faint because it didn't protect you," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head and settled herself next to him.

"What else is going to happen to me?" Kim asked as Tommy could only shrug his shoulders. He knew that his protection ought to be enough to get hers started, she just had to trust him on this one.

"Hopefully nothing after tonight. I infused some of my power with yours, so it ought to protect you now," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head as the trap door was opened and TK scrambled down the stairs to make sure that they were really all right.

"Hey," Kim said, brightly, as Tommy released her and TK threw both of his arms around her in a strong hug. "What's all this for?"

"You were hurt," TK said as Kim looked over at Tommy and he shrugged his shoulders. He knew that she didn't want for TK to see her like that, but they hadn't really had much of a choice in the matter.

"It's going to happen a lot more than you like," Kim said as TK nodded his head and looked over at Tommy, who had propped himself against a console.

"What's for supper?" TK asked, seriously, as Tommy covered his mouth and Kim just stared down at him, surprised that his concern could shift so quickly. "Mama…I can't help I'm hungry."

"Go on back upstairs and I'll be up in a few minutes," Kim said as TK rushed back out of the room, assured that both of his parents were fine. They both waited until he had exited the room, before they sunk back into their true state. "I'm not sure that I can walk, Tommy."

"Come on, I'll help you," Tommy said as he offered her his hand and she gratefully took it. She managed the first few steps without any problems, but as she began to go up the stairs, all her strength gave way. "It's all right, I got you."

"I can't keep doing this, Tommy," Kim whispered as he lowered her down to the stair and he wrapped his arms around her. "I can't let him see me like this."

"I know," Tommy said as Kim looked up at him and gave him a grateful smile. "How about I carry you until we're going to be seen, then you can walk the rest."

"I think I can do that," Kim said as she reached up to put her arms around his neck as he scooped her up. "I've missed this."

"Well, I haven't missed you being hurt…" Tommy said, playfully, as Kim glared up at him, "…but I have missed you."

"So, what's for supper?" TK asked as the two of them walked out of the Command Center and Kim looked over at Tommy. She could tell he was thinking about what he had in his kitchen and by the look on his face, it wasn't much.

"I think we just need to call in for a pizza," Tommy said as his rangers appeared and he looked over at them. "Are all of you staying, too?"

"Yeah, of course we are Dr. O. We don't turn down free pizza," Conner said as the others just shook their heads as Tommy grabbed the phone and walked off so that he could order the food in peace.

"You feeling better?" Kira asked as Kim nodded her head yes and then walked into the living room and sank down into one of the couches.

"It's rough getting back into the swing of things after a ten year break," Kim said as the others could only nod. They couldn't believe that over the last ten years, all of Kim's skills had gone away from her, but they could believe that they were no where near as honed as they had been.

"Does Dad have a play station?" TK asked, as he could tell he was going to get bored with this conversation very soon.

"I don't know, do any of you?" Kim asked, as they all shook their heads no. They had never thought that Dr. O might own something like a play station and if he did, it had to be ancient. "Just wait until he gets back in here and ask."

"So, how long were you a ranger before?" Kira asked, as this was the first female ranger she had ever met and she wanted to find out how the ones in the past had dealt with the insanity of the male rangers.

"Three years, before I went to train for the Pan Globals," Kim said as Kira nodded her head and Tommy walked back into the room. Hearing the words Pan Globals still had an affect on him, he was just going to have to find some way to get over that as soon as humanly possible.

"You never came back and did little missions, did you?" Ethan asked as Kim looked down at the floor and then up at Tommy. "Whoa…Dr. O, that was not in your little video."

"Yeah, I kinda left that part out," Tommy said as TK looked between his father and mother and just shook his head.

"You have a play station?" TK asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and motioned for him to follow him so that they could dig it out of the study.

"What did he leave out?" Kira asked as Kim watched the two of them leave, then turned back to the others.

"Having to save me and Jason from Divatox," Kim said as they looked at each other. They had never heard of Divatox, much less of a mission to save other rangers.

"Why do I have the sinking feeling there is more to that story?" Kira asked as Kim looked down at the floor.

"We almost killed him, between my not coming back when he revealed himself to me and Jason nearly strangling him, we did a lot of hurt that day," Kim said as they looked over at Trent. Suddenly his little evil stint didn't sound as bad as what the earlier rangers had been through.

"Mama, he has the good games," TK announced as he carried the play station in his arms and Tommy brought in the box full of games.

"Well, I am so sorry that I don't buy the good games, maybe he'll get some more for you for Christmas," Kim said with a smile as TK stuck his tongue out at her and she just shook her head.

"Are you going to go register him tomorrow?" Tommy asked after he had plugged in the play station and TK and Ethan were happily playing away.

"Yeah, Jason's going to the school first thing in the morning to request his transcript and immunization records. I should be able to sign him up with those on the way," Kim said as Tommy nodded.

"Dr. O, why didn't you ever tell us that Jason tried to kill you?" Conner asked as Tommy looked over at Kim, who merely looked away.

"Because I didn't think that you needed to know how many rangers I knew that have gone evil," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement. There were way too many people that had dealings with him that had gone evil.

"Well, how many is it?" Trent asked as Tommy started counting in his head.

"I think that it's only five, including myself," Tommy said as Trent looked over at Kim, who had a suspicious look on her face.

"Is that really it?" Trent asked as Kim nodded her head yes.

"He just didn't say that we're the only rangers that have gone evil," Kim said as Trent's eyes widened. He was part of a very select group of rangers that had been evil and that honestly scared him.

"Why didn't you ever tell us that?" Kira asked as Trent tried to process the news.

"It's not really all that important, what's important is that we did not stay that way. We're just as good as the next ranger now," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him. He had always been modest about his abilities, but it seemed that he had become even more modest at the years went by.

"If not better," Kim muttered as Tommy looked down at her as Ethan let out a yell.

"No way! No way you got through that level!" Ethan yelled as TK shrugged his shoulders and continued playing as Ethan looked back at the others. "How did your kid get to be so good at video games?"

"He spent a lot of time in the rec. room of the gym I worked at," Kim said as Ethan looked back at the television screen and shook his head.

"I'll be right back," Tommy said as they heard a knock at the door and he walked off to go get it. He then returned with the pizzas and a disgruntled look on his face.

"Where's the plates?" Kim asked as she walked into the kitchen and began searching through the cabinets.

"The cabinet beside the refrigerator," Tommy said as Kim quickly located a pack of paper plates and some napkins.

"I got it, Tommy," Kim said as Tommy opened the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of packs of various soft drinks.

"No chances, all right?" Tommy said as Kim nodded her head that she understood what he was saying completely. They couldn't risk the things that everyone else could and he knew that a caffeine boost was definitely the best thing for Kim after a day like today. She just had to suck it up and drink something that was not exactly healthy for her.

"All right!" TK exclaimed as he opened a box and found pepperoni pizza. Usually his mom would order yucky stuff like supreme pizza. "And real drinks!"

"No caffeine for you," Kim said sternly as she passed him a bottle of water and he just looked up at her. Why was she doing this to him? "I can't deal with it tonight, Tommy. Drink the water, please."

"Why do you get a real drink then?" TK asked as Kim popped the top on a Mountain Dew and took a long gulp.

"I passed out today, I need it," Kim said as TK just shook his head, opened his bottle of water, and drank a swallow. He hated water, but after a certain time, his mom wouldn't let him drink anything with caffeine in it. He tended to become hyper if she did.

"Where are you going to stay?" Kira asked as Kim and Tommy looked down at the floor, anywhere but each other or the rangers was bound to be better because they would see the answer in their eyes.

"Aren't we staying here?" TK asked as Kim gritted her teeth and nodded her head yes. She knew that the rangers must think that she and Tommy were back together, but they had not made that move, yet.

"Dr. O," Conner said as he raised his eyebrows and Tommy snatched his head up to glare at him. The insinuation would have been fine if it was just him and Kim, but TK being there made it just a little bit inappropriate.

"TK, why don't you go upstairs," Kim suggested as she saw Tommy's jaw muscle tense and TK just nodded his head. He knew better than to defy his mother when she talked like that, so he grabbed his pizza and water and walked out of the room. "Conner, come here."

"What?" Conner asked as he leaned towards Kim and she smacked him across the face as the others stared at her and Tommy only covered the smile on his face. "What was that for?"

"He's ten and goodness knows that he's much smarter than he looks, don't start giving him any ideas," Kim said in a vehement whisper as Conner rubbed the side of his face and nodded as Tommy's shoulders began to shake.

"Dr. O, it's not funny," Conner said as Kim looked over at Tommy and smiled, that was all it took for him to laugh in earnest.

"Just be glad I didn't smack you for saying that," Tommy said as Conner looked over at him in surprise. Dr. O had never attempted to be violent against them, but he guessed there were just some lines they shouldn't cross.

"I guess I shouldn't joke like that anymore," Conner said as Kim and Tommy both nodded their head in agreement. "Well, I gotta go. I have to get up and practice tomorrow."

"Yeah, I probably should go too," Kira said as she stood up to follow Conner, as she looked over at Trent and Ethan.

"Me too," they said in unison as they walked out behind the other two rangers. They had a lot to talk about, but they were hopeful that having Kim as a ranger would help them.

"So, what are we going to do about us?" Tommy asked as Kim leaned back against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. Tommy knew what she wanted to do, but she didn't know if they were ready for that, not after everything that had happened.

"I want to give us a shot, I want to be with you, but I just don't know if now is the best time," Kim said as Tommy pulled her over to his side and she immediately placed her head on his shoulder.

"I understand Kim, but I don't think we can afford to sit around and wait for the right time. We're not going to have a right time as long as we're both rangers, you know that," Tommy said as Kim just nodded on his shoulder as she let out a yawn. "Come on, I'll get you to bed."

"What about all of this?" Kim asked as she looked at the half-eaten pizza and Tommy gently moved her head back onto the couch and took the pizza into the kitchen.

"It's cleaned up, come on, you need some rest," Tommy said as he pulled her off the couch and the two of them walked off to his bedroom. Neither of them thought, nor cared what anyone would say if they saw them. They deserved to be back together and they knew they were not going to make the same mistake twice, they were honestly going to control themselves until they were married, if it ever came to that.

AN: Let me know what you think about it and I'll get the next chapter out to you as soon as I think of something! Toodles!


	10. A Talk

Kimberly couldn't help but pace around the room that she was supposed to be trying to sleep in. She knew that Tommy was only a couple of doors down the hall and although she didn't think that it would be the smartest thing in the world, she wanted so much to go and crawl in bed with him. The last few days had hurt her, she had been through more than she had ever imagined having to go through again and it was all because of the fact that she had come back out here, to let her son meet his father. If she had left well enough alone and continued to keep Tommy away, then she wouldn't be a ranger, but she had finally given into his begging, as even she missed his father more than she wanted to admit.

"You having a hard time sleeping?" Tommy asked as he walked up behind her, as she had absentmindedly, moved her pacing from her room, outside to the deck. She had been trying to put some space between herself and Tommy, but it seemed that was not working as he had come to find her after he had walked by and saw her room was empty.

"Yeah," Kim said as she looked back at him and he stepped closer to her, before wrapping his arms around her. "There is so much to think about Tommy, so much that could happen."

"I know, but I'm glad to have you back Kimberly," Tommy whispered as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and then settled his head on her shoulder.

"Yeah, but what have we sacrificed for this? Tommy, you know that this would never have happened if Jason hadn't…" Kim began as Tommy just shook his head and she gave him a confused look. What else was going on here that she didn't know about?

"He would have found you. I've never seen someone be more determined than him and he was getting pretty damn close to finding you anyway. It was only a matter of time before you were pulled into this and I guess that I would rather it be this way. At least you are protected here, you wouldn't have been protected in Miami," Tommy said as Kim gave him a very confused look. Where in the world was this revelation coming from?

"How did he know about me?" Kim asked as Tommy just shook his head. He did not want to have to explain some of the mistakes that he had made over the years that had to include her name leaking out into his public life.

"He wasn't always this bad Kimberly, he was actually a person, a friend of mine and he knew about you. Hell, everyone in my life knows about you, when they begin asking the right questions. Why don't you have a girlfriend? Why are you thirty and living alone? Why don't you get out there and look around? All the answers to those questions boil down to one person and you are that one person, but you've known that longer than you are letting on," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded. She had suspected that he was unable to move on, but she had never thought that it was this bad. It was definitely something that she felt they needed to talk about more.

"It's nice to know that the maniacs are still after me," Kim said, sarcastically, as Tommy smiled down at her and she looked back over her shoulder at him.

"Well, those same maniacs have been after me for over a decade, so I don't think that you have too much to worry about, sweetie," Tommy said with a laugh as he looked back towards the house and Kim just shook her head.

"He sleeps through about anything, Tommy, don't worry about it," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded as he couldn't seem to tear himself away from her right now. He could see this was more than just a little bit of worry, there was something in her eyes that disturbed him more than anything.

"But you worrying about Mesogogg is not what is keeping you from getting any sleep Kimberly," Tommy said as Kim looked down at the porch and he just shook his head. He was going to have to pull this out of her. "Tell me…I'm not going to be mad at you."

"I've just…I've just been trying to convince myself to lay down in my room and sleep and not come in and snuggle up against you," Kim said as Tommy just nodded his head. He had been fairly sure that her mind had been heading that way earlier. After she made TK go to sleep, the two of them had just sat downstairs, comfortably talking with each other about things that didn't really matter. Then when they had started up the stairs, he had felt the hesitation that she had as she forced herself to go into the room he was letting her stay in.

"Come on, Kim, you need some rest after the day that you've had," Tommy said as he gently pulled her back inside and locked the door before he guided her up to his room.

"We really don't need to do this, it won't take long for him to figure out where I am if he were to wake up. I don't want to risk it," Kim blurted out as he smiled down at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"I know, but you need some rest, you're shaking as it is and I know that if something comes at us tomorrow, you're going to have to be ready," Tommy said, seriously, as Kim nodded. She knew that he was right, but she certainly did not want to admit it.

"Just promise me it won't be anything like the last time we slept together," Kim said as Tommy just nodded and shook his head as she turned away and walked into his room and crawled into his bed and was asleep within moments as he crawled in behind her and pulled her close. Neither of them had had much peace since this had began and they could only hope that things would get somewhat better. They didn't know how much more they could take before they had an emotional breakdown of their own.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: I know that it has been a very long time since I added anything to this story, go ahead, flame me if you must, it might just put a fire in me to get me to finish it.

"Hey Dad, have you seen…" TK trailed off as he noticed his mother and father soundly sleeping in bed. He had thought that the two of them would eventually wind up back together from the moment that he had met his father, he just hadn't expected to see this. It was really no wonder that they both were sleeping so good, as it had been years since they had been able to do this.

His childhood, so far, had been good. He had friends in Miami and he hated that he was not going to be able to say good-bye, but this was the life that he was supposed to live. He had always wanted this, to walk into his parent's bedroom, not his mom's. He knew that it was probably still awhile off before the two of them finally decided that it was time to get married, but maybe that would happen sooner rather than later and he'd wind up with a little brother or sister. He was definitely tired of being the only kid, to a single parent.

"Good morning," Hayley said as TK walked downstairs and he stared at her. How had she gotten in here? "I take it that your parents are still asleep."

"Yeah, in the same bed," TK said as Hayley spit out her orange juice as TK stared at her. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's just, wow…I think I owe Jason twenty bucks now," Hayley said as TK just shook his head and walked over to the refrigerator. He did not care why Hayley owed him money, he was hungry. "TK, I don't think that your dad has anything to eat."

"That sucks," TK said as he sat down and Hayley looked over at him. "You think I should go wake them up?"

"Nope…Trini is on her way over with some groceries, I think we should let her do the honors," Hayley said as TK smiled. He liked the way that sounded very much right now. It would be fun to watch the two of them squirm.

* * *

"Why aren't they up?" Trini asked as Hayley looked over at TK, allowing the boy to explain why no one had woken them up.

"We thought it would be more fun to let you wake them up," TK said as Jason gave the boy a curious look. This did not seem normal to him, in the least bit, but he was not going to question it.

"All right, I'll be back down in a little while," Trini said as she jogged up the stairs and headed for the guest room that Tommy had put Kim in the other day. When she found the room empty, she thought that maybe Kim was in the shower, but after looking in the bathroom, she could tell that was not true.

"Morning," Tommy whispered as Kim rolled over to face him, sleepily blinking her eyes open and shut. She was desperately trying to stay awake, but her body was begging her to go back to sleep. It had been a long couple of days and she was just beginning to get a foothold back in the ranger world. "Sleep, I've got to jump in the shower."  
"Okay," Kim murmured as they heard the door crash open and Tommy looked back over his shoulder to see Trini standing there in shock.

"Damn it," Trini murmured as Kim looked over at her. "I owe Jason twenty bucks."

"You made a bet on when you'd find us in bed together?" Kim asked as Trini nodded her head yes and she just shook hers. She could not believe exactly how desperate their friends seemed to get them back together after all of these years.

"At least they didn't make a bet on when we'd have sex again," Tommy said as Kim looked over at Trini, trying to figure out if that had been part of the bet as well. By the look on Trini's face, that had not even crossed their minds and she was very thankful for that. It was enough to know they had bet on finding them in bed. "Get some more sleep."

"Okay," Kim whispered as he gave her a peck on the cheek and then walked over to his bathroom. As she snuggled back against the sheets his scent still lingered, the scent that was so distinctly Tommy. She could never quite put her finger on what exactly his smell was, but she knew that she loved it. It was the one thing that made her feel truly safe.

"You're not getting out of bed?" Trini asked as she took a step into the room and smirked at the sight of her best friend snuggling in the sheets.

"No," Kim said, stubbornly, as Trini let out a chuckle and then exited the room. If Kim wanted more time to sleep, who was she to begrudge her the rest?

"What did you find?" Jason asked as Trini let out a sigh and then passed him a twenty. "You're kidding."

"Nope, saw it with my own two eyes and by the looks of things Kim isn't getting out of bed anytime soon," Trini said as Jason gave her a curious look. "She's too comfortable to get out of bed."

"Does Dad always have this effect on her?" TK asked as the adults exchanged a glance.

"To a point he always has and so has she. It's not a bad thing, just proves how much they care for each other," Hayley said as TK nodded and he then sat down at the kitchen table. "Why the long face?"

"Things could have been like this for a long time, they just were afraid. I've always wanted a real dad and that's what he is, but Mama still isn't ready, she still wants to run," TK said as the adults stared at the boy in shock. They had no idea how he could have read his mother so clearly, only that he had.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to convince her that that isn't the smart thing to do," Tommy said as he walked down the stairs and looked around the kitchen. "Why do I get the feeling that I am about to get lectured?"

"Only because it's the one thing we are best at doing to you Tommy," Trini said as Tommy let out a sigh.

"I haven't done anything this time, I'm trying to be good and patient and let her come around in her own time," Tommy said as TK just shook his head.

"You need to push her, it might be the one thing that ensures that she doesn't go running back for Florida," TK said as Tommy looked down at him. "You seem to forget that I'm the one that has been living with her for the past ten years, I know her better than you do right now."

"Well, since you do, what do you suggest?" Tommy asked a smile spread across the boys face and he pointed to the seat across from him.

"I thought you'd never ask," TK said as he started telling Tommy his plan and to the surprise of the adults, the boy had thought of everything. Really, he had.


	12. Chapter 12

That night they threw TK's plan into action, the boy had honestly shocked all of them with the thoroughness of the plan. He knew that his parents were still madly in love, even if they weren't sure of it yet. They were great people, they just had to know each other again, truly know each other. He just didn't account for one thing that was ever present in Tommy's life.

"Why do I get the feeling that our son has something to do with this?" Kim asked as she sat down across the table from Tommy and he looked at the floor sheepishly. "He did."

"Yeah, but he had a good reason, since you are thinking about running again," Tommy said as she looked up at him in shock. She had no idea how the two men in her life could tell that. She had been fairly quiet about everything she was doing. "I might not have been around for the last decade, but I can still remember the look in your eyes when you left after the last time. You were running, running like hell to get away from me. I can't lose you again and more importantly, I can't lose our son."

"You'd still have rights if I went back Tommy," Kim said as he placed her with a steely gaze. That was certainly not something that he wanted to hear come out of her mouth. "You can't want me after all these years and everything that I have done."

"You are wrong there, very wrong," Tommy whispered as he looked down and she reached over for his hand. At that very moment his communicator lit up and he let out a groan.

"Doesn't it remind you of high school?" Kim asked as Tommy muttered something under his breath and stood up. They had barely been seated five minutes and had not even taken a good look at the menus, so much for a romantic evening together. The ranger world was calling.

"High school hasn't really ended for me, in some ways," Tommy said as she looked over at him and he shrugged. "What with teaching and everything, it's a bit of a stretch but I've seen enough drama to think it won't be over any time soon."

"Don't forget about the mid-date calls," Kim said as he reached for her hand and tugged her along. Unlike high school, they couldn't just disappear and show back up a couple hours later at Ernie's, the man had to know about them being rangers, even if he didn't wish to admit it. They were going to have to come up with a real excuse as to why they were always running off during the middle of things now.

* * *

"Where the hell are Kim and Tommy?" Conner asked as he pushed himself up in time to fling himself in front of Kira as she lay on the ground. Mesogogg was becoming more vicious in his attacks and today was all the proof they needed to know it was time to ramp things up.

"No clue, I'm sure they'll get here as soon as they can," Ethan said as the red ranger just shook his head. He knew that the two elder rangers had a lot of things to work out, but it had been a good thirty minutes since they called them.

"They need to hurry," Trent murmured as Kira pushed herself to her feet and set herself in a defensive position. "Kira…"

"I'm fine Trent," Kira said as she tried to push away the lightheaded feeling that was creeping over her.

"The cavalry has arrived!" Conner said with a triumphant whoop as Kim and Tommy landed in the battlefield, still dressed in their normal attire. "Morphing would be a good idea."

"I thought we fought without morphing and then we morphed later," Kim whispered to Tommy as he let out a sigh and pulled out his morpher. "I take that as a no."

"I'll explain everything when we go back tonight," Tommy said as he morphed and then heard the woman to his right follow his lead. He knew that Mesogogg would most likely underestimate the woman like so many evils had in the past. That had always been their downfall when it came to Kim.

"Come on little bit, just a little closer," Zeltrax murmured as the pink ranger inched ever closer to his position. He was hiding because of his mission, which was to somehow get the pink ranger back to his master.

"Kim look out!" Tommy yelled as she spun around in time to see Zeltrax and swiftly kicked the being before tumbling away.

"Thanks," Kim said as she landed next to him and they looked around. The younger rangers were barely able to hold their own and the both of them could see that they had bigger problems than just the tryannadrones. There was no monster, but they both knew that that meant absolutely nothing.

"Don't mention it," Tommy said as an explosion occurred and the both of them were thrown through the air, landing on a parked car and automatically de-morphing.

"Our powers used to be able to withstand that," Kim commented as Tommy just shrugged his shoulders. The fact was that the monsters were getting better and the powers seemed to be getting weaker.

"You okay?" Tommy asked as she barely nodded her head yes and he helped her to her feet. At that moment, the tryannadrones suddenly disappeared and they looked at each other in shock. There had to be some catch, evil didn't just give up like that.

"What just happened?" Conner asked as they quickly powered down and he looked back at Kim and Tommy. "Did the two of you do something?"

"Not that I know of," Tommy said as they walked up to the teenagers and they gave them through looks.

"Where were the two of you before this?" Kira asked, as their attire did not exactly scream lounging on the couch with their son.

"Trying to have a real date," Tommy muttered as the teens looked between the two of them. "Guys, it's been a really long day, why don't we talk about this in the morning?"

"Dr. O…if we had…" Kira began as Tommy just held up his hand and looked over at them. For the first time, they saw just how tired he was, tired of being a ranger, tired of a life where his mother constantly asked when he was going to find 'the one', tired of going to sleep every night and wondering what he had done to deserve to be alone.

"If you hadn't called, you would be in a world of trouble right now. I don't know why they're gone, but I don't want to stick around to find out the reason either, go home and get some rest," Tommy said as the teens nodded and he then looked down at Kimberly.

"Don't apologize Tommy, you have done more than anyone could ask of you these last few weeks," Kim said as he reached over and gently took her hand. "Come on, we can still order some take out and have dinner before Trini and Jason bring little Tommy back."

"I don't want that," Tommy whispered as he walked away and she stood there in shock. She had never seen him this upset, this hurt and she didn't know why he was this way. "You're still going to run, once you're off this team."

"Tommy, it's a lot to take in, a big change…I don't want to push you into doing something that you aren't ready for," Kim said as he turned to face her. He was tired of playing all these games and it was time she knew, time that he said everything he'd been feeling, because maybe it would make her understand.

"I want my son to know me Kimberly, I want for you to be my wife, I want to stop living this life where I'm always wondering why I lost you. You say you know what it feels like, you say it was the hardest thing you ever did, you know nothing of what it is like to live that," Tommy said as he stormed away and she stood there in shock. After a few moments the tears came and she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to find some comfort. He was right, no matter what she had dealt with, Tommy had had it harder and he had been so accepting of the two of them, just showing up one day. She knew that she wasn't ready to give herself back over to him, but the realization had hit her that if she did not pull herself together, she'd lose him and this time it would be for good.


	13. Chapter 13

Kim walked around downtown for several hours, trying to clear her mind. She knew what she needed to do, she knew that she needed to talk to him, but she first wanted to go talk to Jason, he was the one that could explain all of it and he was going to have to. She didn't really know what Tommy had gone through and she doubted that he would tell her at the moment. He was fed up and she didn't blame him. She had played so many games with him and it just wasn't fair that he had had to deal with it.

"Kim, what are you doing here?" Jason asked as she showed up on his front doorstep and he looked down at her. She was soaked to the bone, but that was not what concerned him the most. "I thought that you were going out tonight."

"Well, we started to and then we got called out. Jason, what have I done?" Kim whispered as he gave her a confused look and she took in a ragged breath. "He finally exploded, told me I had no idea what he had gone through, and I don't know Jason. Tell me."

"I can't, it's his to tell," Jason said as Kim looked up at him.

"He doesn't want to talk to me, he doesn't even want to look at me Jason," Kim said as Jason stepped out of the doorway and Kim looked into the living room to see Tommy sitting on the couch. "I guess we both thought of the same thing…is little Tommy still here?"

"Yeah, he's in the back…he was kinda mad when he saw Tommy come through the door a couple hours ago," Jason said as Kim barely nodded her head. "I'll send him out and the two of you can talk out here, he doesn't need to hear whatever it is that you have to say to each other."

"Tell me," Kim whispered as Tommy walked outside. "Tell me what this did to you."

"Kim…" Tommy started as she held up her hand and looked at him.

"I need to know, I can't let you go, but I need to know everything, everything Tommy," Kim said as he looked over at her and noticed that her dress was soaked through from the rain.

"You're soaked," Tommy said as she batted away his hands.

"I need to know, please," Kim said as he walked back inside, grabbed a blanket, wrapped it around her and then guided her to a chair on the front porch.

"I'll let you know," Tommy said as he sat down next to her and grabbed her hand.

"I never meant for you to feel the way that you have," Kim whispered as he put his arm around her and took in a ragged breath.

"I know, but it did happen," Tommy said as she looked up at him. "I'm not going to sugar coat this Kimberly, I can't anymore. I was dead, for years, on the inside without you there. You were the one person that held me together, through everything that I had gone through and suddenly one day, you are gone. It was one thing when you were just gone physically, but when I lost all of you…there was a good chunk of myself that was with you and I lost it."

"Tommy…" Kim murmured as she reached for his hand and he moved it away from her.

"I fought so hard for years just to keep your memory from haunting me. Each female ranger that put on the pink suit couldn't live up to you, but they all wanted to know about you. They wanted for me to tell them what the original pink was like. I couldn't tell them that you were a heartless bitch, so I had to find a way to forgive you, so that you could live on in the eyes of people who didn't know half the story. That is hard, that is something that I wish no one would ever have to do to themselves, but I did and I love you, I never stopped," Tommy said as he wiped his eyes and looked over at her and saw the shock no her face. He could tell that she had never expected to hear that from him, never expected to hear that sort of anger. If someone had asked him if he would ever say this to her, he would have told them no, until now.

"Sorry doesn't quite sound like enough," Kim whispered as he reached over for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Nothing sounds like it's enough to make this go away, to make you feel better."

"Time and love will do that Kimberly, but I can't have you continue to question whether or not you should be here. I need you to decide that you're staying, you are going to see this through, because I'm not going to invest myself in you if you're just going to leave again," Tommy said as she looked over at him and her eyes widened.

"I've been scared so many times, I don't know if I can trust myself to be able to hold on," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded his head and then stood up. "But I want to try, I really want to try."

"That's all I can ask," Tommy said as he pulled her to her feet and gave her a hug. "Let's go home."

"What about…" Kim began as he looked down at her and she took a step back at the look in his eyes.

"I want to take you home, just you. TK can stay here for the night, like planned," Tommy said as she barely nodded and he placed his arm around her.

"Let's go home," Kim whispered as Tommy smiled and then teleported the two of them out.

"I think Mom and Dad are going to be all right," TK said as Jason and Trini looked down at him with a smile.

"I hope that you are right," Jason said as TK looked up at him and gave him a startled look.

"I know these things, they are going to be fine, as long as Mama doesn't go crazy," TK said as Trini and Jason exchanged a glance. They certainly hoped that Kim didn't do something like that, because this was her last chance, they all felt it.


	14. Chapter 14

"Mornin'," Kim whispered as Tommy opened his eyes and looked over at the woman lying next to him. Last night they had done a lot to repair their broken relationship, but they still had much more that needed to be taken care of. TK was suffering for all the things that they had messed up on in the past, they had to do what they could to make things right with him.

"Mornin', what are we going to do today?" Tommy asked as she shrugged. She knew what she wanted to do, but she was unsure if he would agree to that as well. "I can see you've got an idea."

"I think we need to try to figure all of this out, we can't keep pulling him around like this, you know that as well as I do," Kim said as Tommy sat up and he barely nodded. He hadn't wanted to talk about that part of their life so early in the morning, but it didn't look like he was going to have a choice in the matter.

"Okay, so what are we going to do?" Tommy asked as Kim looked over at him.

"I'm going to stop running, it's what I've been doing since I had him and it's not fair to anyone, but him especially. He hasn't known you because of it and it's just time that all of that end. It's time that things become the way they should have been the entire time," Kim said as he nodded and then forced himself to sit up. "Whether or not we get married or stay separated, he deserves to have you in his life, even if there are times when I'd rather that not be the case."

"Why's that?" Tommy asked as Kim let out a sigh.

"There's just some things that are going to happen as he gets older that we're not going to be the best people to deal with it. How will we explain to him that you're supposed to give relationships your best shot, not just a shot in the dark? He's not going to believe that, especially after all we've done to shoot that theory to hell and back," Kim said as he smiled.

"Don't worry, I know that the two of us have made our mistakes, but if we can make this work out this time, we might be able to save ourselves some of that in the future," Tommy said as she gave him a concerned look. "He's like me, we'll learn to make things work."

"I wish that we didn't have to learn those things," Kim said as he barely nodded. "I'm going to try harder Tommy."

"I know, we've got to, both of us," Tommy said as Kim nodded and she then turned to lie on her back. "You okay?"

"I've been better, TK is going to be so mad at the two of us," Kim murmured as Tommy rested his head against her chest and looked up at her.

"You're not alone anymore," Tommy whispered as her smile widened.

"I'm glad of that, I'm not sure I'd make it through the teenage years by myself without killing him," Kim joked as he smiled.

"My parents thought the same thing about me a couple times," Tommy said as she laughed. "I was worse than you'd think, especially when I had the stage of trying to find my real family. That was going to happen with you in a few years with you."

"I know…I wasn't looking forward to it, since I was getting the third degree already, he's barely ten," Kim said as he let out a sigh. "At least he knows you now, although that might not keep him from bothering us for much longer."

"I think having ten years to catch up on might be something that makes him mad Kim. I'd be mad too if I was in his position," Tommy said as Kim nodded. "I love you, everything will be fine."

"You're so confident and I'm the one who's been the parent for the last ten years. I have no clue what to do now that he knows and that we're trying to actually make this work," Kim whispered as he gave her a quick kiss and then hopped out of bed.

"Want pancakes?" Tommy asked as he stretched and then threw on a pair of boxers.

"Sounds great, you sure you won't burn down the house?" Kim joked as he stuck out his tongue and then left the room. She slowly sat up and then walked over to the bathroom and climbed into the tub. She was going to take the most of not having to answer the relentless questions that both her son and his father had for the moment. The last couple of weeks had completely drained her.

* * *

"So, how were things last night with you and Kim?" Trini asked as she walked in and saw Tommy standing in front of the stove in only his boxers. "I'm guessing that things went good."

"Really good, how was he last night?" Tommy asked as he turned around to see TK smirking up at him. "I'm taking that look as meaning fine."

"He was fine Tommy, don't worry, we were actually more worried about you and Kimberly last night," Trini said as Kim walked down the stairs in a pair of Tommy's shorts and a t-shirt.

"I guess we shouldn't have been worried," Jason murmured walking up behind Trini and giving her a hug. "No more running away, from the either of you?"

"At least not for now," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded. "Just one day at a time for now."

"Glad that you've finally decided that, we're going to be on our way, you've got a lot of explaining to do," Jason said as Trini nodded as TK sat down at the table and Kim walked over and sat down next to him.

"So…" Kim murmured.

"That's all you can say?" TK asked as Kim smiled.

"I'm not really sure what to say besides that right now," Kim said as he looked over at her and she looked down at the floor.

"Mom, you could tell me why you left Dad. You could tell me why we stayed in Florida all these years when you knew who my father was. You could tell me the truth," TK said as Kim closed her eyes and then placed her head in her hands.

"Tommy, take it easy on your mom, she's had a rough couple days," Tommy said as he sat down next to the boy. "She has a lot to explain to the both of us."

"Tommy, Kenny, the both of you have the right to ask me any question you can think of, I just can't guarantee that I will be able to answer them all," Kim said as she looked back up at them and Tommy felt his heart break. She was hurting so much, but she was going to do this for them.

"Why did you leave Dad?" Kenny asked as Kim forced a smile.

"Because I was scared, we weren't trying to have kids Kenny and with everything that was going on back then, he didn't need any more pressure. I know that he could have handled it now, but I can't change it now," Kim said as the boy barely nodded and Tommy watched her closely. He was ready to save her if he had to.

"I was a mistake?" Kenny asked as Kim cringed.

"No, we just weren't trying to have a child," Kim said as Kenny just shook his head.

"You didn't want me?" Kenny yelled as Kim felt the tears fall down her cheeks and she made no moves to stop it.

"I did once I found out I was pregnant," Kim muttered as her shoulders started shaking.

"Why then?" Kenny asked as Tommy looked at the two of them.

"Because you were all that I had left of your father," Kim said as Kim stood up and then walked out of the room. She needed to get herself back together before she faced the two of them again.


End file.
